Hey... that dont fit into this thread but... yea. I could translate that cool mod to german. But sadly only the text, because i have no voice actors in my home. xD I can try it... if you allow it.
Then also all german players understand it without have the google translator always opened. xD
((I am going to do something called splitting the thread here people, as the load times for this page are getting ridiculous. What I intend to do is start a new OOC thread, and a new story thread under this forum, copy over the last few posts from the previous threads (much as I did when I set up the forum to begin with), and then use dummy thread posts to push the huge threads off to page two, where they won't impede reloading, but will be preserved for reference. So if you see this, and are wondering where the rest of the threads went, go to page two and on (well, for default setup, anyway, if you change your options under your profile enough, you may still see them, if you do and it is a problem, say something). ))
CRAP. I forgot a very important line last night. --> " As the shrieking cackle begins, Star unravels the master weave on the group communication channel on an impulse, causing the channel to slowly fade out over the next half minute as his nervous breakdown begins in earnest "
Eolhin, can you edit that into the carried over post? It goes right after this sentence in the first paragraph.
Star turns an odd, ruddy color before abruptly letting out a mad, shrieking cackle that is loud enough to wake the dead as several small objects made of yellow and green crystal materialize at his feet.
I'll edit it into the post on the previous page - thank goodness edits don't bump threads. EDIT: Damn, it would have to go after the next sentence. This one
One is a miniature Talos statue, one is in the shape of a book, and there are several small crystals in the shape of various creatures from the Shivering Isles, including a Gnarl and an Elytra.
Hi, trying to wrap my head around a post now. I should have had Alex explain these points up front then Mathias maybe would have understood a bit better, Alex has a summon spell that works like a cross between the Call Dragon shout and a summon Deadra spell and Mora used that spell to basically force Alex to meet with him. And Alex was the one who would have opened the scroll if Sanguine hadn't intervened, because she didn't trust Mora at that point because he used the spell and didn't just call her to meet with him like he did any other time. She can't actually die unless her soul is destroyed because after Sanguine made her a Succubus her body and spirit became more Dremora then human. To clarify I consider vampires more human because they are still tied to Mundus where as Alex is tied to the Misty Grove so she can only be finitely killed if she is killed there, and then only if Sanguine allows it.
Star: Okay, I edited that in. Tell me if I got it in the correct place. I was wondering about that...
Edit: Morgana: Well, you didn't make any mention of that before, even in OOC, and you had that book to exchange, and Alex left purposefully to be away from the group for the conversation, so you can see where it would look like Alex summoned Mora, not the other way around.
@ Eolhin : It's in the right spot. I had it in my notes, I just forgot to drag it into the final draft at the last minute. BRAIN FART!
@ Morgana : Okay, I think I understand all of that. Good idea with the situational kill immunity for your character, things get rather bonkers around the group. Star's wild card is he can't be killed unless he is in one place - all of him. If he separates into more than one form/body, he can't die. He'll just lose a lot of energy if one form is axed while another is still around.
EDIT: Currently, all of Star's essence is in one body - but when he's in one single form, he's considerably stronger than when divided. So.. Probably not going to have him do the multiple forms thing until the whole Mora mess dies down, unless I have to have him eject a new body out of his main form in order to escape from something. Like how a lizard loses its tail to get away from danger.
Not sure when my next post will come up - Star's alone at the moment. Got to think... probably going to have him check on New Sheoth after he's done recovering from his freak-out, he'll remember he left a portal there.
@ Morgana : That's .... a very good question. I was originally thinking timelines running at the same rate, but the Shivering Isles are controlled by Sheogorath, which means time flows however he wants it to. So... no solid answer, unless everyone goes with the default " 4 hours = 4 hours " .
Side note, did ANYONE notice the worst part of Star's verbal fit? Nobody commented on how horrible the image of Crassius riding a cliff racer was yet ....
EDIT: ( Maniacal laugh ) Weird mood today... I'm more Star than myself thanks to the hot weather....
As for time, I have a stake in this one, as Mathias needs to gain distance from the group.4 hours = 4 hours, I say. Plus, Mathias could go through Daedric realms with naught but a headache when he was bound to Nirn. He'd been through New Sheoth.
Edit: Regarding death, Mathias also realistically can't die. Firstly, his age and immortality somewhat proves that he's not just going to keel over at any random moment, as his dragon blood protects him.
Second, if Mathias is very badly wounded, he has a natural trump card in the form of Vulthuryol. Don't ask how he'd summon the Dragon of the Deep, but he has the ability.
And third, if someone actually did kill Mathias' mortal form, they'd have a very annoyed and well armed spirit to deal with, who would very happily destroy his attacker's body to rebuild his form. Think of it as a form of very violent and destructive post-mortem restoration, except without being true necromancy. (is it considered Necromancy if you're raising yourself from the dead to continue actually living, rather than just reanimating the dead? Mathias does return to the living realm after a death, but he comes back incredibly weakened.)
Meh, shouldn't have used the same joke twice. Still not sure when I'm going to post next. I'm all over the net today, and I want to add a few weapon and armor mods to my LO before starting on the new Inigo. Then to rebuild the bashed patch, merged patch, and SkyProc patches. Headache fuel
EDIT: Oookayy... where exactly did those extra abilities come from? You never mentioned them before Madrias. I understand the .... science of them ( searching for a term that made sense there ). But it came out of nowhere.
Mathias would never have mentioned them because he's never used them. I never mentioned them because the topic of death never really came up before. I've simply said it in the past, Mathias can't be killed. Let's just say it's part of the Dawn Magicks to bring someone back to life when they're already dead, and he has the sheer willpower to stick around long enough to give a last ditch effort one last try. After all, by the time he'd receive fatal wounds, he'd already have been unleashing Dawn Magicks. There's no harm in one last casting.
Not really extra abilities, but extensions of things he already has to do.
As for calling Vulthuryol, Mathias knows blood magic and can summon a dragon through a portal, if need be. Vulthuryol would already know Mathias is in danger: they share life-blood, and by extension, Mathias and Vulthuryol are partly one-and-the-same.
After all, I mentioned in OOC the last time that Mathias didn't hear Talos, he heard Vulthuryol.
Okay, whatever. Oh, you said that Mathias needed more time to get further away... But my orb certainly isn't going after him, and I rather doubt that will be the top priority of Star either, when he does get back to Mundus. Alex might go after him, but for that, the time passage in New Sheoth is irrelevant.
OH... quick clarification so I don't confuse the daylights out of people. The portal Star left behind closes a few minutes after he and Zrika and Tenebrae use it. When I mentioned he'd be checking on it, I meant he'd be checking where it was after he wakes up, to see if anything/anyone followed him through. Considering that Star recently dropped moldy runny mammoth cheese on Mathias, Star won't be searching for him right away. Star may have been in full BONKERS mode when he did it, but he will remember what happened after recovering from the nervous breakdown and reviewing his memories.
Alex and Cian, I don't know how long it will take for Star to look for them yet ( As I don't yet know whether they use Star's portal to the Mania side of New Sheoth yet ) , and after likely running into Zrika and Tenebrae in New Sheoth, Star will be primarily worried about Eolhin, who got startled into a total panic when crap ... or rather cheese... hit the fan.
That's the basic framework for my part in the story at the moment. Nothing solid yet.
I (my character) plan on remaining catatonic, or something like it, as long as possible, as I need a few days off for RL stuff. When Star comes to search for her, then people will find out where she went.
Mathias, as mentioned, is making very good time to Whiterun, with an overload of power that he needs to unleash before it actually hurts him more than just the little warning it gave him.
What was SUPPOSED to happen was, people would notice my orb's color change, and Star acting agitated, and would ask what was wrong. Then there would be an actual explanation, and then brainstorming to try to find a way to help my Hooloovoo. And several things would be revealed about her by what suggestions wouldn't work, and why. Eventually leading to something to help resolve her problem.... But that is entirely out the window now, because we can't camp for one evening without something attacking us, or some major blow-up happening internally. Fine, I and my orb find catatonia to be much more peaceful than life with the group.
Mathias would have asked, had there not been a vampire problem to deal with. Were there no vampires, he wouldn't have gone ballistic on Alex. Sure, he would have been in a bit of a mood because his winter fur itches, but he'd been noticing Eolhin's color change and feeling deeper regret.
After all, what was supposed to happen at that camp, from my side of the story, was that Mathias would mention his regret of what he did to Eolhin, we'd have a peaceful awakening of the camp, get back on the way to Riften, and on the way, somehow resolve the issues between Mathias and Eolhin. (obviously, I didn't try to flesh that out, as I don't know how Eolhin, or her character, think)
I had this plan written up (the split from the group) to allow him to cool down rather than sitting there and fuming about it until he blew up at someone like he did the last time he was pushed to his limits (when he unloaded his memories on Eolhin.) As mentioned, Mathias is heading to Solitude. He's also going to find a few surprises along the way.
Edit: As no one plans to chase down Mathias, I'll run as a separate concurrent timeline. Four hours doesn't need to equal four hours. Just that Mathias needs four hours of Nirn's time to calm his mind enough to realize Star didn't outright attack him, it was more a big, messy prank. At the same time, he'll somewhat figure Eolhin snapped because Star flipped out.
Think of Alex as MIA until Star gets back because her memories are to close to the surface for her to trust herself to talk in any way at the moment and Cian is with her.
Star, they didn't go through the portal. so whenever Star gets back to Mundus Alex will be ok enough to speak again.
Mathias, After that time Alex is going to try and contact Mathias in some way to try and explain what happened with Mora, and subsequently what would have happened had she not asked Sanguine to scan the document.
What Eolhin said is in line with what was my original plans for Star before the vampire attack... But, one last huge problem in a relatively short time made Star have a total nervous breakdown. ( No offense Morgana, any huge issue from anyone would have set Star off at this point. If anyone else wrote in something attacking instead of you, Star's reaction would be very similar to what happened with the vampires. ) So... Right now, Star's taking a nap in a flaming crater while his mind reboots after said nervous breakdown. That's it for the moment.
Star stress chart ( the most severe instances ) ... Fighting Mora to get back Eolhin's knowledge and energy-------> Molag Bal incident----------> Fus Ro Dah Godwave ( Was almost completely recovered from this and doesn't really hold it against Mathias )---------> The whole incident with Mathias getting time-distorted after Cian contacted Alex -----> Dealing with Akatosh showing up following Star's dark Word -----------> Mentally assaulted by Mathias near Silent Moons Camp ( He barged into Star's mind, top-level . Counts as an assault/mental trespass in my book, although not a ... rank 5 of 5 one, more like a 2 of 5. ) --------> Having to move the camp after Silent Moons incident ---------------> Nightgate Inn trouble with Mathias's nightmare----------> The scene where Star loses it after "hearing" what Eolhin got blasted with ( Remember he had to go off planet to vent from that) ------------------->Mora issue at Revakheim ------------>Starting to realize that Eolhin is a lot worse off from the Nightgate Inn that Star originally thought---------------> Vampire mess.
Soo..... no wonder Star flipped his lid. Probably be more than that in the "severe" category, I was trying not to make a huge text wall by only writing the most absolutely key events that were stressing Star out. I likely missed something important ( or several somethings ) That is one FRELL of a bad week. Not that nobody else has been stressed ( Pretty much everyone has ). This is just Star's reasons for freaking the fell out and having a nervous breakdown.
Um, according to your previous post Morgana, where Sanguine contacts Alex's mind, and pays a visit, she didn't ask him, he barged in, and already knew that the scroll was trapped...
"{I told Mora not to interfere in your life again. Asking you to get the book for him I can understand, but then coming to get it himself and then giving you a trapped scroll I cannot. I’m going to teach him a lesson he won’t soon forget!}"
She in fact tried to shield her mind against him, though not successfully.
She thought it was Mora again that's why she tried to shield her mind. Thanks for reminding me of that I should have said that If Sanguine hadn't intervened she would have opened the scroll, unless Star had ripped it from her hands, and ended up being banished by the effect of the curse as it was meant for Star, not her.
Still around, just highly distracted setting up my load order for the new Inigo. Found a few weapon mods that I want. And some other mods. That means a lot of load order work and clean saving with the use of the Savegame Script Scalpel
EDIT: And then rebuilding the merged patch and the bashed patch and my SkyProc patches... UGH. Me and my 220+ Load order.
Mathias will be easy to find, and he'll feel as a great weight has been lifted, too. He's had time to cool down from the event (a day passes in my whole travel from where we were to Solitude. Yes, Mathias can make that trip, with camping and sleeping needed to be done, in 24 hours. He's built for war, and war often means fast marches followed by brief moments of panic), dealt with a... shall we say, former enemy, on the way, and is in Solitude, meeting with two people who previously had a hold on Mathias' life and want nothing more to do with hunting him. To say it without giving too many spoileriffic moments.
Well, I am going to go get something to eat, and I have to get to bed early tonight.
Are you working on your character's reactions to the huge mess Morgana? Even if they stepped out past the edge of the camp, it isn't like they could miss all of that. Star dropped a cheese-bomb almost on top of them, and then some of the cliff racers probably bounced. Not to mention the sounds.
Alex is to busy sorting out her memories so she isn't a danger to anyone in the group, such as it is. Was going to have a 4 hour time skip and was thinking about having her go after Mathias but he seems to have other plans so her meeting up with him can wait until he is finished whatever meeting he has to do. Madrias I only want Alex to explain to him the fact that she was summoned by Mora, for lack of a better term, and she didn't call to him to come.
Those cheese-bombs --- all of them were over 30 pounds, same as what got dropped on Mathias. That's a lot of cheese. ( Can't see how Alex or Cian wouldn't get affected by a 30+ pound cheese bomb splattering everywhere. ) The one that landed by them made
Um, what does her being a danger have to do with anything? The characters were in full-on mental meltdown, but they weren't lobbing anything really dangerous, just messy, stinky (in the case of the cheese), and loud. Whatever your character's reactions, just write that up. They don't have to say anything. They can just stand there stunned with their mouths hanging open, then start cleaning themselves up, if that is what they want to do. However you think they would react.
Alex, I did my plan in a rough draft. You can go after him, but remember, Mathias is huge and trained as a warrior. He can travel large distances in a very short span of time.
Mathias can go from our camp by the Shrine of Talos to Solitude in 24 hours. With camping stops along the way, at that, even being the bare minimum of "get off my feet, lay down, rest, and recover a bit."
I have no problem putting up things in a split post version so you can get to him and speak with him, but his first four hour time-stop is going to be the Bannered Mare, in Whiterun.
There I posted and I left it open for Mathias to notice someone is trying to contact him and then pull back so If you want Mathias you can follow up with that. She is able to find him by using the title Fjalar the Forgemaster used to locate him, much as he could by using her title and he could summon her in that way as well.
Edit: Eolhin, to quote from Madrias's post [You are more dangerous to the group because you willingly summoned Hermaeus Mora to our doorstep!] I was referring to the fact that Mathias sees her as more dangerous then he is.
Still hovering, but not likely to make a post today at this point.
EDIT: Um.. Morgana, considering the Aetherium amulet that Mathias is wearing, don't you think it's a little odd for Alex to be able to track him with a crystal ball? That amulet blocks practically all magical detection. ( Star enchanted it to hide Mathias from Hermaeus Mora, remember )
That's the only thing I saw that was totally out of place.
Also, Madrias confirmed that Star's the only one in the group that has any chance of tracing Mathias with magic.
Oh, and everyone, remember, Mathias has that enchanted Aetherium amulet. The one that Star enchanted so that Mathias couldn't be found by mystical means. Finding him is not going to be easy with him on the Path of Peace (otherwise, just follow the trail of death and destruction). Star could probably find him by scent (werewolf) as well as energy signatures, if Mathias were to cast, and he could probably, being that he enchanted the amulet, back-trace the feelings of energy to find him.
That last bit
Star could probably find him by scent (werewolf) as well as energy signatures, if Mathias were to cast, and he could probably, being that he enchanted the amulet, back-trace the feelings of energy to find him.
You're right Madrias, Star could likely use that to track Mathias . It makes perfect sense. It would be a difficult method of tracking, but useable. One that required a lot of concentration. ( the amulet bit, the werewolf bit just requires Star to be within so many hundreds of feet )
EDIT: Tracking down Mathias is a bit low on Star's current priorities list though. Star still has to check on where his portal was ( after he recovers from total nervous breakdown ) and track down a very shell-shocked Hooloovoo ( after running into Zrika and Tenebrae in New Sheoth. It's actually probably better to have Star just cross paths randomly... sometime in the more distant future of the story after the whole mess that just happened has been resolved.
I changed it to make a littler more sense and Mathias would be able to sense the Scry because Alex used his dragon name, or rather title. Whether it is reacted on or not I leave to Madrias.
Mathias will react to it, including trying to return the call in much the same way, just with different, more ancient equipment.
Edit: He's calmed down by the time she contacts him, by the way. (I'm assuming, if I read your post right, Morgana, that you've time-skipped four hours.) The way I got through with him looking upset is simple: being called like that is a little unpleasant. Hence why he thinks the call is important enough to respond to immediately.
Yes I time skipped 4 hours because that is when Alex has finished containing the memories that were trying to escape and was able to be aware of her surroundings.
Alex is going to blink to him, or rather to Whiterun Gate and walk up to where Mathias is. After she explains things Alex is going to ask to tag along with him. You can decide if he accepts or not Madrias, just throwing this up to give you a little food for thought while I post.
Well, Mathias wouldn't have a problem with her following along, but he travels very fast by his nature. After all, he traveled to Whiterun very fast and has had a chance to settle in and get comfortable in four hours' time. His goal is Solitude, and he doesn't care exactly what path he takes to get there.
Oh, and if Alex could manage it, this would be a good time to bring Cian along, especially if he can help shield Alex's mind from the Daedra, as well as the fact that Mathias doesn't fully trust him because he doesn't know him yet. He knows basically two things about him (and mind, this is from a character perspective, not mine): He's Alex's twin brother, and that he's not a fighter.
Ok posted, going to have to pull a mutagen potion out so she can fly and keep up. Will have to play skyrim a little today to find out what wing type fits her the best.
Edit: just read your post and I can have Cian meet Alex and Mathias at the entrance of Whiterun if I can figure out how to get him there.
On for the day. Will be putting a post about my character in at some point. He's still in the Shivering Isles, it won't interfere with what anyone else is doing no matter where I end up dropping it. Just a heads up.
Morgana, Mathias plans to rest a while. More than enough time for Cian to find a passing carriage driver or someone willing to take him to Whiterun.
As for how he'd find out, Cian's managed to talk telepathically to Alex before at great range. He should certainly be able to contact her without startling Mathias too badly.
Star, I understand. Your story runs along the same line as mine, where it interferes with no one other than those who are involved.
And my post is up. Still in the room of the Bannered Mare. Mathias intends to have a good rest before heading on the way. Then again, an old warrior like him, his version of a good rest is a few hours worth of sleep.
Heading off for a while. I've been awake for more than 24 hours now, and I need sleep. Might be on later tonight, might have to wait for tomorrow, but at least we're not at a point where one person disappearing for hours on end will hold up the story much.
After all, Cian needs to reach Alex, Mathias, and Panzer for one line to keep going. They'll make it to Solitude, where Mathias clears his name and returns to the world without the fear of being hunted. After that, I don't fully know.
Star's still in the Shivering Isles, needing to find his way to where his portal came through at.
Zrika and Tenebrae are also in the Shivering Isles and in likely need of a rescue.
Eolhin's vanished, and no one knows where or when she is.
The result? I can go doze off without risk of slowing the plot. The only 'time sensitive' thing is my timeline that I'm sharing with Morgana's two characters, and it can run smoothly enough if I take a night's worth of rest.
Planning on having Star run into Zrika and Tenebrae. Probably going to write Star making himself as obvious as a Scamp in a dress shop when he lands in New Sheoth.
Star himself can always make another portal to where he wants to go. Same for helping Zrika and Tenebrae.
As for Eolhin, Star will eventually go looking for her, he is the only one capable of sensing life energy well enough to do so. Just in case it wasn't already obvious, after being startled that badly following dealing with memory issues, Eolhin will likely split clean out of Nirn's universe if she sees Mathias.
Just wanted to put this up for future clarifications, I'm not going to leave Zrika and Tenebrae stranded. Or have my character abandon Eolhin.
@ Zrika : I left the end a bit vague on details so you can have Star meet up with your characters wherever you want. Just in case you had anything halfway written up.
Again sorry for the delay. Have stuff to do in rl.. And not enough time for anything else. Hopefully. I'll have a post up later tonight. I already have a good idea of how it will be. But I have to go somewhere soon to help mom out with the vet and the dog. :/
I made a tiny post because it is a question that I think Alex would ask.
Madrias: The contract I mentioned is something I made up to go along with the memory Alex had a while back. The basics of it is that Alex is sworn to protect Ahgrohikkvith and, when he ended himself so that she could be remade, the contract lay dormant until she met Mathias where the contract grafted to him so she is now sworn to protect him.
Madrias, can you look at the explanation of the contract in my previous post here and tell me if I should change anything because in my next post I am going to have Alex explain it to Mathias.
Morgana, it actually makes sense. Mathias is half-dragon by blood. It's why he reacts to being called Kul Do Vulthuryol.
As for his reaction, it'll be a bit of a shock to him. Not enough to set him off, but he's going to be a bit worried that a Dragon Priest is bound, again, to protecting a dragon. More worried that Alex is bound to him.
UUUUGGGGHHHHH.................... Long day today, already, and it's only ten in the morning Pacific Time. Managed to get enough time off to get a post in, but it may be my only one for the day. If not, I won't likely be on again until late afternoon. See all of you later.
Finally figured out how to word my next post and it is up.
Madrias: ti give you an example of the command thing, during there time in Solitude Alex is going to follow Mathias around and listen to commands aimed a her to not cause any backlash on Mathias.
Managed to come up with something to get us on the move and keep us on Mathias' intended time schedule. Had he been traveling alone, he wouldn't have slept a whole night. Hence, he feels he's a good four hours behind with no way to go faster, so he's considering mentioning all the risks that come with opening a portal in an attempt to go from Rorikstead to Solitude's stables in an instant.
Checking in again. My character is a bit stuck until Zrika and Tenebrae do something. Spending the time away from the RP thread in Skyrim - A certain spell has locational surprises. Inigo's got some interesting things to say in areas where followers can't normally go now. Spoilers no, have a sweetroll instead while you find out on your own.
( Leaves a plate of a couple dozen sweetrolls sitting around )
Small post is small. Sorry about that.. And for the record.. I haven't even been able to touch my skyrim game yet to see Inigo 2.0. x-x So if the post needs fixing let me know. I'll fix it when I wake up later.
Star, although the reunion of the group is at an indeterminate point in the future right now, any thoughts on how (or at least where) they meet back up? I know you have to collect Eolhin first, and that makes sense, but it's just something that's come to mind.
As for why Mathias hasn't found a way to send word to Star, he honestly hasn't thought of that yet. It's not like he has a lack of methods. His Dwemer scrying dish works on thought alone, it just happened to be convenient to call Alex by her title to get her attention. He could have Dagon drop a Dremora in the Shivering Isles with a note, or he could outright talk with one of the Mazken about rumors.
After all, Star being in the Shivering Isles is certain to raise a ruckus among the Seducers. That whole Mania vs. Dementia thing, after all, is what somewhat led to events previously referenced. Hence the Aureal reacting to Mathias: That little swamp Mathias conjured up in New Sheoth got blamed on them for not protecting the city. It's why Mathias hasn't done the whole "make a portal to the Shivering Isles and head through" trick. He's uncertain as to whether Sheogorath would tolerate his presence as he was, at the time, a bit of a troublemaker. After all, a swamp in the middle of Sheogorath's city probably took a good bit of time to clean up. While I'm sure Mathias hasn't angered Sheogorath, Mathias doesn't exactly know whether or not Sheo's upset with him or not.
Not sure at the moment - I've only tried to plan ahead to the point where Star finds Eolhin. I'll have to plan it as I go - I don't know exactly how Eolhin's character is going to act, but it's a safe bet that the Hooloovoo won't want to come back to the group soon, if at all ( She was very shell-shocked after the vampire incident, and already having painful problems before that ) . As for my character - eventually he'll come by to check on Mathias, Alex, and Cian, but I'm not sure when. It depends on how things go with Zrika and Tenebrae in New Sheoth, ( where they want to go from there ) and how things go in-story after Star tracks down Eolhin.
Star isn't expecting a message from Mathias at the moment - the way I'm writing it, Star is giving Mathias time to cool down from getting covered in mammoth cheese. Star may be bonkers, but he knows that it's better to let things simmer down after something like that rather than try to communicate right away. At this point, my character would likely react badly to Mathias just showing up through a portal - it hasn't been that long for him, he'd assume Mathias was showing up to get back at him for the whole cheesing the robes situation. Badly as in teleporting out with a dropped watermelon heading for Mathias's feet ( One possible reaction ) not badly as in rain of fire.
Priority one at the moment for Star is getting Zrika and Tenebrae to where they want to go safely, then he has to find Eolhin, and has a rather defiled shrine to clean up so Talos doesn't get angry.
As for the where of Star meeting up with anyone else - Probably Echo Deep Mine or Faalskar at the latest... just not sure, I'll have to see how the story goes from here.
EDIT: And as for the how, Star has... endless means of transportation, I just have to think of something that doesn't send up a magic flare. Would'nt want to let all of Tamriel know where Mathias is by Star just ripping holes in reality or using a flashy runic teleport. Or any other highly detectable method. Probably just going to have Star fly in from a distance, beam down a telepathic message that he's coming in, and land without causing a ruckus. This is planning far in advance - I probably need a minimum of four posts just to find Eolhin, get Zrika and Tenebrae where they need to go, and clean up the Shrine of Talos.
And my post is up. Yes, Mathias used a very flashy runic portal to leave Rorikstead. It has the advantage of being nearly impossible to trace unless you know exactly what to look for. As Mathias wrote the spell in Vaalskaran, and had to use the incantation in Vaalskaran, only one can tell where he went if they know the language. And as he traveled to a road, good luck to any enemies trying to find him.
More than likely, someone will see the symbol, compare it with some form of historical references, and see it as an ill omen of times to come.
And no, I'm not too concerned about Mora trying to trace that portal.
I haven't fallen into a black hole or been eaten by rabid jackrabbits - just had a busy couple of days and was feeling sick yesterday. Still checking in on the thread at least once a day. Just letting everyone know I still exist.
It has come to my attention that I may not have made it sufficiently clear what my future plans were and why, so let me try again. I am sorry, but dealing with your character (Mathius), your style of RP, insisting the story go where you want it to, in large part ignoring what others do, and what your character did to my Hooloovoo, has caused me considerable stress. I have fibromyalgia. Stress is like poison to me. Due to dealing with the stress of this RP, in combination with a number of things happening in real life right now, I now have an ulcer, and am in a lot of pain from the fibromyalgia. I can’t eliminate several of the RL stresses I am under, but I can eliminate dealing with the RP stress. And so I am.
Let us call it irreconcilable differences in style and goals in RP.I will write enough posts replying to Star to properly explain my orb’s absence, and write her out of the story long term, or only have her interact with Star, Zrika, and Tenebrae. In short, my Hooloovoo is not returning to the ‘group’, and I am not having her interact with Mathias ever again. You are free to recruit more writers, if you feel you don’t have enough characters in your group to carry on with. I will continue to split the thread for now, at least until someone else wants to take over doing it. Have fun.
Well, I've taken the opportunity to put Mathias on indefinite leave. Unless someone comes up with a quest that really desperately needs him, he's unlikely to return.
However, I am not out of this just yet. Mathias was a character who is fun to play in game, but not to roleplay as, and as Eolhin pointed out, not fun to be with. He represents the darkest side of me, without the light to balance it.
I have a character who is much more... tolerable. Luke, from New Vegas. A robot with a personality. He's always been designed, in game, to be a fun-loving-and-occasionally-witty character, who usually takes a bad day and finds the good in it.
And yes, I have his arrival planned out, though it will have to wait until those who intend to travel together return to the same location. He's also not carrying a quest, like Mathias had been (and yes, Mathias' quest is done. His main goal was going to be getting to Solitude to deal with those hunting him. When the group split, I saw an opportunity to write off a character I really wasn't enjoying anymore.)
As for how Luke gets to Skyrim, it involves a misadventure with portals.
Edit: and for the telepaths in the group, Luke does have a mind, or at least enough of one that can be read from, though trying to get through his usual mental clutter to speak with him might be difficult. He's multi-threaded, even in thought.
OK, thank you Madrias for inadvertently helping me. I was trying to think of the best way to place Cian on permanent hiatus until when/if we do something with the Dawnguard faction and bring in my current character. Her name is Sapphira and she is a Matera, a race that resembles the Breton’s except that they have the ears and tail of a fox. They really have no backstory except they lived underground but have been driven to the surface by some force so I had to come up with a way to explain them without shoehorning stuff into Mathias’s backstory so here is what I came up with, it is written in a way that a book would be.
The Matera, also called the Howling, are a rare race of humans that resemble Breton’s, but for the fact that they have the ears and tail of a fox which were gifts from the Daedric Prince Hircine. They made a home for themselves in the Dwemer city of Blackreach sometime after the Dwemer disappeared in 1E 700, only to be driven out in 2E 578 by the Falmer.
Sapphira’s backstory is that she was born on the 13th of Suns Dusk in the year 2E 568, so 10 years before the Matera were driven from Blackreach. She was rescued by Alex and Cian on one of their trips to the ancient city and was raised by the clan until 2E 588 when she struck out on her own and Hircine chose to unlock her Lycanthropic abilities and made her a Howling. She was called upon by Alex to help her during the Oblivion Crisis and hasn't seen her friend since. She is now in Skyrim because she was contracted by the Dominion to make sure Queen Ayrenn got to Solitude safely and is now on her way to Rorikstead, at the behest of Emperor Titus Mede II, to try and figure out what happened there and she will bring Alex with her.
Simplest way to put it regarding Mathias' backstory is that Blackreach is a big place and he wasn't completely the ruler of all of it. He was the leader of the Vaalsark, and that was it. He had no control over the Falmer, and would likely have never run across the Matera.
As for Luke, he's, well, a bit of an adventurer from the Mojave Wasteland. And it's just like him to find a portal in the wasteland while fleeing from a gunfight he really wanted no part in, decide "Anything's better than this mess." and recklessly throw himself through it without checking where it was going to, or the fact that it was a one-use portal, or even if it was at a safe altitude.
Obviously he survives, but he runs across the trail of where our group once traveled, stumbles into a certain dungeon that a certain cranky Vaalsark used as a spell testing zone, and, well, that's about as far as I've gotten with the preliminary outline for Luke.
As for his abilities... He's very limited comparatively. He's good with flight, he's tougher than he looks, and his vision is, well, state-of-the-art. Well, that, and he never needs to sleep. His major downsides... What little currency he has is worthless, and he's terrified of water. Not that he'd short out in water, but he's had bad experiences with it.
But he's supposed to be a much lighter character than Mathias (who, let's face it, is a very dark and evil character trying to become good), and a character on the other side of the fence: He's not going to get any better with his skills, and most of his former knowledge is now useless.
One skill he still has that will be useful is his ability to pick locks. If we're ever up against a door that can't be opened by one of the group, let Luke take a crack at the lock, and unless it needs a key, he'll probably pick his way through it without snapping lockpicks.
*Has nasty flashback to the eradicated water in Fallout New Vegas* Yeah, I can understand his fear of water. The reason I said about shoehorning stuff into Mathias's backstory is that I had it in my head that the Matera were another experiment of the Dwemer, but that may have messed up Mathias's backstory so I rewrote my thoughts to prevent tangles. Going to post soon.
Posted the changes and they are headed to the shrine where the shrine where the attack took place. Star, and everyone else, Sapphira is called that because she has dark blue hair and eyes that are a mix of blue and purple. her fur, what there is of it rather, is black, and light blue in the inside of the ear.
Madrias: Alex is going to be in for it when Luke shows up as Sapphira knows that Alex will leave one way rifts open in the strangest locations, in fact you can use the fact that he follows the renascence of the portal caster to find Alex and the others. just an idea I came up with.
Luke has no mystic abilities. His finding the group, especially given his method of arrival, is going to be coincidence. Well... Damn, this is hard. Trying to explain without spoiling anything is really, really tough.
And the trying not to spoil things is mostly because I really don't have a whole lot written up on Luke, other than that his arrival will certainly have the attention of most of Skyrim, at least for a moment.
Wow... a lot happened to the RP while I was having a busy week. I need to get caught up on everything.
I've been really busy - hoping to have my character do something tonight, but no promises.
Minor mental derailment is all, need to alter my plans now that Mathias is leaving the story, and Cian is on what I'm reading as permanent hiatus until the Dawnguard factor into the RP.
My immediate plans are the same as before - Get Zrika and Tenebrae safely out of New Sheoth, then clean up the Shrine to Talos and track down Eolhin.
Will keep everyone updated - assuming that something doesn't pour ten tons of busy into my week again.
TL ; DR : I don't have a way to add another character at the moment, so Star is going to be my only character for a while. Likely a LONG while.
Star is ... Complicated, so I won't be likely to bring any new characters in anytime soon. I've got my hands full with keeping a ancient survivor of a dead universe consistent personality and history wise, so bringing in any of my other half-formed ideas to light now would hurt Star's character/personality, as well as whatever new character I could bring in. So for the time being, Star is going to be my only character - his scattered race ( What little is left ) is in hidey-holes or other odd locations all over the countless possible universes in fictional reality - so the biggest trouble would be a conceivable way for one of them to bump into Star.
It's understandable, Star. I think half of that is what hurt Mathias: He's a character who was meant to have a fiery temper barely contained, and a dark past. His mindset was easy for me, as he was based on me, with all the good peeled away, leaving most of the bad. The flaw with that is the fact that Mathias shared my short temper, and also my inability to handle prolonged stress. Nowhere near as bad as Eolhin, but I understand that. With me, personally, stress builds up and shortens the time I have to put a lid on that temper, hence why in the story, Mathias blew up on Eolhin, and then shortly after that, blew up and left the group. He's doing what I would have done (and technically did...) by leaving the group, cooling down, then perhaps some time far in the future, he'll come back if he's needed to save the day.
After all, I went until the 7th before I made my last post as Mathias. I had to calm down so that I could think rationally as Mathias (well, as rationally as he does), get him into Solitude, deal with the pardon letter, and get him out of sight, out of mind.
As for my new character, Luke, he's roughly based on this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/43732/? though with quite a few personal modifications. Like stowaway wings that allow him to glide (and a plasma thruster for powered flight), and an ability to hide his main weapon (a heavy freaking pipe wrench) inside his leg. And he's a character who tends to favor being an optimist versus a realist or pessimist. After all, he escaped his own destruction 13 times by the time he arrives in Skyrim. And it's probably a good thing none of us has a deck of cards, because his one biggest problem is gambling.
As for his height compared to the rest, just a little under 6 feet tall. And if we're going to talk age, he undeniably takes the "youngest member of the group" award at just over four years of operational service.
Very busy today, but still got a kickstarter post in. Zrika won't be held up by me now - Tomorrow is likely to be busy as well, as of 4:22 am October 9th, I'll be 24 years old. Birthdays sneaking up on me - now I feel a little old
Star, a quick question, would it be okay with you if I had Alex and Sapphira meet up with Star at the Statue of Talos? I ask because that would at least allow for Star to be told that Mathias isn't coming back unless the need is great.
Mathias, is Luke a complete robot or is he more of a Cyborg?
Well that means Sapphira is going to have fun picking his brain about his programming because she is really into Dwemer Animunculi, and all things of that nature.
Sorry for not replying. Been busy.. And now when I look at the posts.. I come up with blank replies. If you all want, you can keep going and just think Tenebrae and Z went into the portal. I won't be posting anything about what happens in Bruma during their time there. Until Star decides to pick them up. xD That I have an idea for oddly.
@ Morgana : That would actually derail me a bit, I have to have Star clean up the cheese mess there. Have something specific in mind that you wouldn't want your characters to run into. Something shows up to eat part of the mess while everyone's away. Trolls from the nearby Darkshade cave. Thinking about what to post. You can always have your characters run into Star somewhere else, he still has to track down Eolhin's Hooloovoo character.
@ Zrika : Okay, I'll think of what exactly I'm going to post in regards to the portal.
@ Everyone : I'll probably have my post up sometime this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Bit of a busy day today.
I was actually thinking about that and came up with another idea, for Sapphira at least. After everything is cleaned up and Star is gone, as long as Star is traveling by non teleportation, Sapphira will pick up his scent and be able to track him. If you plan on Star teleporting, then that will get more complicated as Alex will have to call Sheogorath to help locate and get close to his location.
Keep in mind, there are other ways to move then on foot, or teleportation. My orb originally traveled as a wavelength of light. I don't know what maner Star intends to use to track her, but he spends a lot of time flying. So there is a good chance that he will be flying, or moving as an energy being to track her. *shrugs* Also, if Star does move as an energy being, Sheogorath might take great amusement from telling you his exact location at the moment you ask... which would, by the time you got there, be very far from where he would be by then. Not that asking the god of madness for directions might not lead to amusing results. It might be funny to see play out.
Morgana, I could bring Luke in early (only thing it means is that instead of everyone meeting him at once, he's in the world to be encountered) if it'd help give a reason to be sidetracked from getting to the Shrine of Talos.
Luke's arrival is... well, destructive. You know that house that is always destroyed near the Western Watchtower? Luke's the one who destroys it this time, with a complete accident. The only lore I applied to that house is that it's long since been abandoned. Whether it was the home of a former Talos worshipper, an unlucky farmer eaten by a dragon, or just someone who packed up and moved back to Cyrodiil, the house has been empty for quite a while before Luke came along and ruined it.
Luke isn't necessarily a pacifist character (He's walked the Mojave Wasteland, after all), but he doesn't like fighting if he can avoid it. He's also going to arrive in Skyrim with nothing. I decided that giving him the wrench really wasn't going to help anything. Being that he's an optimist (or at least, as close to one as I can manage), he'll see it as an opportunity.
Either way, whether Luke meets the group as a whole or meets the group in parts, his arrival will be about the same way. Whiterun is the place I picked for his crash landing for many reasons. One, that perfectly placed abandoned house is a great place to have a destructive crash landing without ruining some poor NPC's life. Two, Whiterun is central to everywhere, which means that after landing, Luke can set out in any random direction. Finally, three, Luke can make a quick run to get some basic provisions from a number of close-by ruins or bandit camps.
And with that mentioned, I'm going to bed before I fall asleep and drool into my keyboard.
Eolhin: by on foot I meant any way that didn't involve getting from one location to another almost instantaneously, of course if the portal is fresh then Alex may be able to open it and they would have a place to start, but they still may need the help of either Sheogorath or Hircine to find him.
Madrias: That would actually work, Sapphira is going to have an earache though. Sapphira has a device on her head that is a combination Dwemer Scouter and listening device for Dwemer Animunculi, which the listening device part is still in her ears and it tends to magnify the sound of explosions so that will certainly get her attention. If you want to do that I'm all for it. The Scouter is hidden in the band of the device until needed and then swings down in front of the eye when it is being used.
Monkey business added. I just edited the next part into my old post, as nobody else had posted yet in the RP thread.
@ Zrika : Star might give someone a fright or might not, depending on where your characters are and how they notice his appearance. Just materialized him out of nowhere in the story from the perspective of anyone looking at where he " pops in " after all. LOL.
@ Morgana : I have a bit of a " mental head-full " of stuff for Star to do, so I'll give you an opportunity to catch up with him later. It was just a bit much to visualize a scene of him meeting them right way at the Shrine of Talos on top of everything else on his plate. I'm thinking after Star visits the Shrine of Azura to catch up with Eolhin's Hooloovoo would be a decent time . Sometime after her response to that, so after one or two more of my posts, and Eolhin's post reacting to Star, Tenebrae, and Zrika showing up looking for her.
@ Morgana : I'd talk to Hircine over Sheogorath if I were you. Hircine is likely to give you a straight answer if he's in a good mood and is sufficiently impressed with whatever offering gets his attention, Sheo's likely to speak in riddles, give deliberate misinformation for his amusement, send Alex and Sapphira on a random quest for his amusement, pelt them with foodstuffs for no reason, or all of the above. Even considering that this incarnation of Sheogorath has personal history with Alex. Sheo's Madness Incarnate, after all.
@ Madrias : I have... a LOT to visualize at the moment, so I'm thinking that Star is going to be too busy to notice an exploding house if that happens while he's in Bruma or tracking down Eolhin. I couldn't even rationalize a way for Alex and Sapphira to meet Star at the Shrine of Talos without my brain throwing sparks everywhere. So you don't have to hurry on anything due to me, I wouldn't be able to react to it right away anyway.
Star: Ok, figured out how I could make that work, summoning Hircine and having a proper offering. I do however need to know timelines so I can make one part work, do you want Alex and Sapphira to meet up with the group in Bruma or at another location? The reason why I ask is that I don't know how long it took for Star to find Zrika and Tenebrea and then how long they slept for and the other stuff.
@ Morgana : Another location, I still have a visual mess to type up after Zrika reacts to Star showing up in Bruma, most of which is figuring out what form of transportation ( or series of linked transportation methods ) to use in order to meet Eolhin's Hooloovoo at the Shrine of Azura without having Star startle her when he shows up, causing her to run clean to Moonshadow or skip Nirn's universe out of fright. You have to remember, the Hooloovoo was on thin sanity ice already before Star's massive cheese freakout became the straw that broke the camel's back and made her leave the group in complete panic.
I'm just a little visually swamped at the moment mentally regarding my character's part in the RP. I want to get his current urgent business out of the way before any complete or partial group reuniting. ( Well, partial partial or partial complete. It would be Luke that Star sees rather than Mathias. )
So, just wanting to get my current stuff done before adding anything new.
Timeline, this should be at least two full days after the incident at the shrine, so Star getting to Bruma to pick up Tenebrea and Zrika in my last RP post would happen during the time frame that Mathias is retiring to Proudspire Manor. The arrival at the shrine should be right after ( ? ) the portal to Solitude. I kind of lost track, but I think that that is right.
Thanks for the info Star, just getting everything sorted out in my mind. I will post as soon as I have an idea as to where to meet up with Star, Zrika, and Tenebrae. As for right now I may post about Sapphira summoning Hircine and getting his help in finding Star and I may have them meet at the Shrine of Azura after Star and Eolhin figure out there stuff. If that is ok with you guy's.
Sorry for the wait. Things are finally starting to slow down here. Anyway yes there was a point to a certain person in this which will be talked about later.. And warning for descriptive post. I tried as I can with how tired I am. So if there is anything that confuses you, let me know.
I am... struggling with a mild case of writer's block regarding Luke's arrival. A lack of visual memory is causing mayhem, as while I can detail his perilous descent through the atmosphere, I'm not entirely sure how to describe certain events.
Of course, I'll keep working through it, see if I can get to some point that I'm not breaking the three page mark in his arrival, keep condensing as needed, and take this out of rough draft and make it a post. For now, I'm straining because I keep forgetting that most people have more visual-based memory than I do, which slows me down because I'm uncertain how much detail to write in.
Still around. It is slowing down around here. It might take me a bit to make my next post - I'll try to have it up by tomorrow night at the latest. Right now I have " Long Thursday " writers block. =/ It's just been too long of a day today for me to think properly.
Star: I am going to have my little group meet up with Star and the others with him at the Statue of Azura if that is ok.
Everyone: My next post is ready but just a heads up on an non lore friendly addition to my group. He is a Dwemer Sphere named Dorn and he can talk. In my post he talks and I give a back story for him that I think makes sense. A Dwemer Engineer that escaped the journey of the Dwemer because he was wandering around Oblivion, not the same Dwemer from Morrowind, helped Sapphira save her friend, Dornveil Sagehollow, from the Soul Carin and was able to augment the body of a Dwemer Sphere to allow Dorn's soul to control it as if it was his own body. If that is alright with everyone I will keep it in my post if not I will remove it.
Sorry for the long delay, had a busy weekend so far. I'm going to try to have something up tomorrow ( Monday ) . Just one of those really busy weekends.
Ok - I know I've had a freakishly long break. My schedule goes ape during the winter holidays, starting with Halloween and ending with New Year. I'm probably going to be - erratic here, but I haven't abandoned the story. Currently trying to put together the visual imagery and rough draft for my character's next story segment.
It's okay, Star. Life happens, and real life takes precedence. Also can understand the need to focus visually, as it's something I have a hard time doing. I'm visual enough to put together a scene in my head, but I end up going through the whole "keep revising it until it's perfect" phase. Especially trying to work out how a new character joins in, without disrupting whatever ends up going on in future events.
I suppose the biggest thing is that I'm unsure how much detail to go into regarding what Luke looks like. Also the fact that in a world of dragons and magic, strange powers and living gods, Luke's inability to cast is a bit of a disadvantage, though I may have a way to counter that, and for it to be costly enough that Luke can't rely on it for more than an emergency. Sure, Luke comes from a world of laser guns, bullets, and weapons that would be considerably deadly in the Skyrim universe, but he doesn't get to bring any along. I don't want him to be that powerful, not without significant cost. He has a significant advantage in that his body is constructed of titanium, which, to be fair, I've placed mentally around Ebony regarding the Skyrim armor scaling. Essentially he won't be afraid of low-level beings for the most part, as his base armor is sturdy enough to turn arrows away without much risk of harm. The big weaknesses are that he's deathly afraid of water, and that he has a huge weakness to shock magic. He's not at risk of shorting out in water, but anyone who's played the Fallout games knows danger lurks in water. Something significant that he brings to the group is that he's highly resourceful. His strategy would be more along the line of an archer (something he could learn easily, as it's all angles, distances, and calculations to make things line up) than a warrior.
And I've done it again, brainstorming in the OOC thread. New characters are hard, even when they're based on one you play in Fallout New Vegas.
Ok... I'm still alive, but my schedule has been a total mess. It's almost Thanksgiving.. and for me, that means a holiday and two birthdays in the family in the same week. But I've set aside some time to write up my next part of the story from various notes tonight. It should be up sometime tomorrow. I've been... well, BUSY. Really busy.
Yep. Holiday season is so complicated too much stuff to do. So take your time! (Just got back from a party myself. And decided to give this a poke so you all know I'm still around. xD Don't mind me. ^^; )
((I am going to do something called splitting the thread here people, as the load times for this page are getting ridiculous. What I intend to do is start a new OOC thread, and a new story thread under this forum, copy over the last few posts from the previous threads (much as I did when I set up the forum to begin with), and then use dummy thread posts to push the huge threads off to page two, where they won't impede reloading, but will be preserved for reference. So if you see this, and are wondering where the rest of the threads went, go to page two and on (well, for default setup, anyway, if you change your options under your profile enough, you may still see them, if you do and it is a problem, say something). ))
Star stands, laughing at the sky, as everyone is coming back, a soft, mad laugh. A few seconds after Mathias growls at Alex after dealing with the vampire threat, Star abruptly stops laughing, about the same time that Mathias is looking over at him. Star has picked up on the negative emotion, too stressed to keep his sensory capabilities muffled. Star turns an odd, ruddy color before abruptly letting out a mad, shrieking cackle that is loud enough to wake the dead as several small objects made of yellow and green crystal materialize at his feet. One is a miniature Talos statue, one is in the shape of a book, and there are several small crystals in the rough shape of various creatures from the Shivering Isles, including a Gnarl and an Elytra. As the shrieking cackle begins, Star unravels the master weave on the group communication channel on an impulse, causing the channel to slowly fade out over the next half minute as his nervous breakdown begins in earnest. Following the mad laugh and small conceptual accident, Star barks out a stream of venting and nonsense, finally having stressed out to the point of a total temporary nervous breakdown.
" Sour-lime mood Cliff racers ! Stupid and a Stupid COW ! Mammoth crap in a hat ! The closest port is fair Oblivion! Crassius eating limes on a Cliff Racer's back! "
There is more than this mixed in, colorful, nonsensical swearing in several languages. The rant goes on for half a minute straight, utter nonsense and profanity mixed together in a rapid, garbled stream, before Star targets the closest recent sources of dark angry emotion while cackling like a lunatic and slapping the ground. He opens a pocket dimension that dumps over thirty pounds of warm, smelly, slightly moldy runny mammoth cheese all over Mathias with no warning, doing the same to the closest vampires to the camp, the ones with their heads sticking out of ice. Another pocket dimension drops a blob of cheese near Alex and Cian, making a spattering, chaotic mess. All of the cheese-bombs go off at the same time - pure chaos. Star's eyes are bugging out by this point, and he shrieks out another deranged cackle before opening a portal in thin air at his side ( and size ) , between him and where Zrika and Tenebrae are. It is a portal to Mania in the Shivering Isles, opening just inside the main gate of New Sheoth on the north side. Star bolts through screaming obscenities and nonsense, forgetting to close the six-foot high, three-and-a half foot wide portal that hovers in midair, and scaring the living daylights out of several Golden Saints as he takes to the air once on the other side. The portal is slightly unstable, enlarging it would likely result in it collapsing. It hovers in the air, and will stay there for about three minutes before dissipating from lack of energy supply. It also is made chaotically, any energy other than Star's fueling it will make it go haywire, although as a butterfly proves soon after Star passes through, using it for travel is safe until it fades. The butterfly just keeps going, flying from Tamriel to the Shivering Isles as thought it was passing through an open window.
On the other side, Star flies about randomly, laughing like a lunatic for a minute before taking off looking for something worth blowing up away from all the confusing life signatures that he is sensing in his deranged, hypersensitive state. He ends up dropping a rain of fire on an abandoned ruin a hundred miles away from a previous Greymarch, finishing off by dropping a huge, white-hot fireball on it. After his massive flip out and fireball venting, Star falls over sideways following landing in the flaming crater, snoring as he hits the ground. He will wake up in about four hours, after his mind has had time to reboot after his nervous breakdown.
Startle/shock/fear! The orb’s train of thought entirely derailed at Star's fit, picking up random bits of thoughts and words from those around her and adding them together with the force of panic and a full energy charge behind them. ^Lime-distortion-fear-cliff-racer-danger…^ Her blotchy blue-grey orb flared momentarily with a tint of green to it and there was a loud “OoOeeeUouoo!!” Then exactly 42 life sized, fully detailed, cliff racers made entirely of extra stiff and wobbly lime gelatin, in the characteristic transparent vivid green color, appeared between 15 and 42 feet up in the air and rained down over the campsite, predominantly focused just over Mathias. The split second after this massive conceptual accident, the Hooloovoo was invisible and gone at the speed of light, nowhere to be seen, before the racers had even finished flopping down in a huge heap on Mathias.
“You made the damned choice to summon Hermaeus Mora, you damned fool!” Mathias snarled to Alex. “You made that choice! You summoned an enemy, specifically everyone's mortal enemy, just outside of Revakheim! Worse than that, Alex, you accepted a scroll from him without thinking that it could easily be one of Mora's bloody traps! Had Sanguine not intervened, WE WOULD ALL BE DEAD! You included!” he snapped, striking the ground with his staff, causing a violent flare of light to surround him. “Or did you not think that Mora would like to kill you off too, to preserve the secrets of the Noiral for himself? I'm not mad about Molag Bal. I understand you had to make a choice, to become a Vampire or to die horribly. I've had my share of bad choices, some more recent than others, and I regret each one.” he said, growling.
“I willingly accept that I'm dangerous to the group because I don't know what I'm capable of. You are more dangerous to the group because you willingly summoned Hermaeus Mora to our doorstep! You made a deal with him that is not worth the mud on my paws! You nearly killed everyone.”
“As I said, I have made my share of bad choices. That is why I walk my Path of Peace. I have my share of regrets, the deepest of which right now is what I did to Eolhin in a fit of rage. If I could reverse time and undo that, I would, but I can't.” Mathias said, his voice calming to normal. “I went through the same memories I forced on her, I felt the pain as well. Even before that, I regretted it. For a being with no physical form, the feeling of pain must be a fearful experience.” he said, though it would be barely heard over Star's ranting in mixed languages.
He looked to the group, his mind racing with thoughts left unguarded. ^Perhaps I should travel separately, so that I can learn what I am capable of without harming everyone. I have my own ship. I can get to Falskaar later, after the others. Surely Eolhin or Star could open that portal without needing my expertise. Perhaps that would be the wisest move.^ he thought. His fur was pure white by now, his winter fur fully grown in.
Right about that time, Star's insanity reached a peak, and Mathias found himself covered in molten, moldy mammoth cheese. Not moments after that, he was hit with green, bursting cliff racers. His eyes flashed orange for a split second, before he spoke in a voice as powerful as the Thu'um, though it was only mortal words, “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!”
His spirit flared violently, making him wince as a seam of light split his right cheek, drawing blood, his reserves unchecked. Mathias was wild, set off by a combination of events. “Find your own damn way to Falskaar!” he yelled, before storming off southbound toward the road. An unlucky traveler happened to cross his path, and Mathias caught him up in a severe gust of wind, knocking him down. “Get out of my way.” he snarled.
Tenebrae listened to Mathias as he spoke. The big cat nodded in agreement when it was mentioned about making bad choices and regretting it. Then when Fallingstar started to laugh. Insanity at it's peak, it became obvious that Fallingstar had truly went insane. ~Ah... tiivz.. Not good.~ Tenebrae saw Zrika wake up at the sudden outburst of laughing and she gave Fallingstar a worried look. Though after the cheese.. Her face was painted with pure shock.
"What in the world..?" Zrika muttered and stared as after Fallingstar left in his portal, as Eolhin seemed to have a similar mental breakdown. Zrika saw Tenebrae's eyes go wide at the gelatin attack. "Tenebrae what in the world..?" Zrika meekly asked. "There was... Alex gave us a warning about a vampire attack. We fought the vampires.. Now this. I can't even.." Zrika was shocked the big cat was speechless for one.
Once Mathias yelled and went off his own way, both Zrika and Tenebrae were at a loss. Zirak looked around, and spotted the black and white book. She picked it up, worried to lose it in such a place and decided to take a look at the battle field. Frozen vampires were still spitting about curses, there was flaming cabbages about with sea... Wait Seaweed? All over dead vampires. Zrika had to step back. This confused her, the whole mess confused her. Closing her eyes she shook her head to clear it, but instead was greeted by an image. Of a vampire.. Opening her eyes quickly, she made a screeching sound and ran through Fallingstar's portal in a fit of fear. Tenebrae, stunned followed after her.
Once she was through, she was greeted by two Golden Saints who apparently were inspecting the portal Fallingstar had made. They were surprised by her sudden appearance and even more surprised when Tenebrae came through. One of them muttered a question about Mora. And The big cat seemed to hear it. Because he growled. "Call me Mora or dare lay a hand on us and I'll make you into puree-saint with lime flavor.." the two golden saints backed away quickly and Zrika blotted off somewhere. With Tenebrae running after her.
Cian reacted to the Cliff racers and cheese bombs by jumping into the pool of water, he nearly went after Mathias but decided that he better stay and look after his sister, who appeared to him to he having a breakdown of her own. Alex did not react to anything that happened at camp and only saw the aftermath of what had occurred 4 hours later. She looked around and noticed that everything, including herself, was covered in cheese and a lime colored gelatinous substance. The only thing that wasn't was Cian who was sitting on a rock watching her worriedly. "What happened?" Cian asked her. "I almost leaked memories to the whole group because I was so upset. I'm ok now, and yes I remember all that happened." At his look she shook her head, "I was still awake and aware of my surroundings but I needed to corral the darker memories and stick them in a container so they didn't leak everywhere." She looked around and thought "Lets see, Star left for the Isles, Zrika and Tenebrea soon following after, Mathias headed away from us, and Eolhin split as soon as the Cliff Racers started falling." Cian gaped at his sisters memory and almost fell over in shock as she pulled out an orb of crystal and started looking for Mathias and quietly whispered the name Fjalar the Forgemaster said and he reacted to. "KulDoVulthuryol where are you show me" the crystal became foggy and as the fog cleared she saw him, but decided to leave her explanation for now and catch up with him, literally, later as he seemed to still be pissed.
Mathias continued toward the road, an aura of malice surrounding him as he did. While he would remain, for the most part, on the Path of Peace, he was certainly not going to be kind to anyone. ^An overload of power. I have to burn some of this off. Star attacked me!^ he thought, still riled up. He dropped down from the rocks onto the road, landing with some mild looks from passing travelers. Panzer had followed and also did the drop, landing with a heavy crash on the paving stones, his eyes giving off flickering shades of blue.
“Go, before I send you and your cart flying into the river.” Mathias growled. Unsurprisingly, the travelers disappeared, not wanting to take a chance, not when a rather angry-looking mage, covered in cheese and green goop, threatens to send everyone flying into the cold water. Mathias used one of his spare cleaning crystals, getting cleaned up before continuing onward. He made it across the bridge before a searing pain hit, and more flares of light cut through his skin. He grimaced and fell, unable to hold his balance. He looked back to where the camp was, bared his teeth, and formed a large wall of solid ice across the bridge, burning off just barely enough energy to stop it from trying to kill him.
Mathias healed his wounds, heading down the road to the junction. He stopped and looked at it for a moment, as if making his decision. ^If I go right, I'll head toward Whiterun. From there, I can make it to Solitude. If I go left, I'll eventually end up at Windhelm, or Riften. While I'm displeased about the situation, I see no reason to go to Riften and unlock that portal if there's a chance I can't hold it open. There's no reason to go there at all for me right now. Solitude it is.^ he thought, before turning right on the road.
He picked up his pace, not outright sprinting for his life, but a hurried run, wanting to put distance between himself and the others. ^Eolhin vanished, but more than likely, she's not going to bother me. Star, for all I care, can fall in the swamp of New Sheoth. Zrika and Tenebrae got caught up in the backlash, unfortunately, and hopefully they can find their own way. Alex and Cian can comfort each other in the knowledge that one of them likes summoning Daedra who like to kill everyone.^ Mathias was so much in thought that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, exactly, and ran right into a courier. The man fell with a heavy grunt, but still gave his usual speech, though he was now laying on the ground.
“I've been looking for you. Got something to deliver. Looks like... You really do have friends in high places. A letter from Queen Ayrenn of Alinor! Well, I have to get going, got a lot of letters to deliver.”
Mathias looked at the letter curiously, as if he didn't trust it. He walked onward, making camp just off the path to Hillgrund's Tomb. He threw up a small leather tent, brought his staff in for light, and opened the letter.
“Va'Kaar Mathias Valdaan, I send this letter by courier, rather than twenty Justiciars, in the hopes that you will have spared his life. I seek to settle this standing war we have between yourself and the Aldmeri Dominion. You may have started the fight, but you have shown you would finish it, too, by how aggressive your tactics are. Not just do you fight with a blade, you have picked up a surprising use of magic, in particular, ice spells. I have been requested by my people to offer you a pardon letter, erasing your crimes against the Dominion, and against me, as well as to extend an offer of a peace treaty between the two of us, not as empires, nor as rulers, but as people. I will be in Solitude shortly after you receive this letter, should you wish to discuss a change in terms of the treaty.”
Mathias stopped reading for a moment, setting the letter aside in order to look at what else was there in the sealed package. He looked over the peace treaty, noticing that it seemed rather fair. He would pay the 3,000 gold originally owed for the cost of two dresses, and she would stop sending attack parties out to find him. He then looked over the pardon letter, and found it to be much the same way, that his bounty had been nullified and he was no longer a target of the Aldmeri Dominion. The letter had been signed by Queen Ayrenn, and the pardon, and the treaty had been signed by Queen Ayrenn and Titus Mede II, making them binding and legal documents between separate empires. Mathias signed his name to the pages, where appropriate, then counted out the 3,000 gold needed to satisfy the terms of the treaty.
^Star may still hate the Thalmor, and to an extent, so do I, but at least now, I'm not who they're trying to kill. Let Star deal with the fact that I'm no longer dragging the Thalmor in my direction. I will still fight my war, but I will do so at a later time, when I am more ready for it.^ he thought. He packed his letters away, the small coin-purse worth of gold, packed up his camp, and headed toward the Valtheim Towers.
The bandits at the towers were relentless, insisting on demanding payment from him. Mathias gave a feral grin and started to summon his storm, heavy black clouds forming over the towers. A heavy rain fell, though no ice, nor wind, nor lightning came from it. It would be nothing more than a rainstorm that would last two days. The bandits looked panicked, and Mathias spoke up over the pounding rain, “I have shown mercy. You have heard by now of what I did to Silent Moons Camp. Spread the word that I am not to be attacked, or I will do the same to their camp.” He then continued toward Whiterun, his feet flying over the paving stones. Panzer was barely able to keep pace, even with the increased steam pressure in his boiler from the highly-charged crystal. His metal paws clattered loudly as he ran alongside Mathias.
He stopped by the Honningbrew Meadery, mostly to make camp long enough to let his paws rest. ^Remember my training. There is no need to run so hard that my paws bleed. I'll rest here for a half hour, then be back on my way. There is no real need to rush.^ he thought, eating a bit of cooked beef that he'd bought from a traveling merchant. After he finished his meal, he cleaned his hands in the river, got up, and headed into Whiterun. ^I'll rent a room in the Bannered Mare. If anyone's trying to reason with me, they can deal with me when I wake.^ he thought. Mathias looked to his wolf, who was busy trying to drain the river to refuel his boiler, then got up and stood at Mathias' side.
Mathias opened the door to the Bannered Mare, walked up to the counter, and rented a room. Even the bard went quiet, seeing the nine-foot-tall Vaalsark and his metal wolf, not wanting to get between the pair of them and where they were going. Panzer curled up next to the fire pit, keeping warm, while Mathias headed up the stairs, hearing the wood creaking under his weight. He settled onto the bed, planning on sleeping in his armor and robe. ^Star didn't attack me. I'm not nearly wounded enough for an attack. That was more along the line of a really poorly designed prank. Eolhin... Perhaps she lost it when Star lost it. The two of them were both agitated at about the same time, and Eolhin's been acting like a deer who's seen a wolf around me.^ He winced sharply as he felt the Call from Alex. ^What in Oblivion is that? Someone called my Dragon Name, I think, and I dare say I know who did it.^
Mathias reached into his bag of holding, glad he'd emptied his Dwemer trunk into it. He pulled out a flat disk of Aetherium, about the size of a dinner plate, rested it in a small stand, and set it on the table. ^What was it Fjalar the Forgemaster called her? Kiir Alexandria. Hope she's still got whatever she tried to find me with. I'm going to return the call.^
He looked to his reflective disk of Aetherium, then spoke in a quiet tone, “Kiir Alexandria.” The disk started to glow, and Mathias added a splash of water to the top of the disk, making it more reflective.
Alex jumped because of a combination of Mathias's Call and the fact that Cian had picked that exact moment to pore as overly large bucket of water over her head. Without thinking she blinked and magically teleported herself to Whiterun Gate, spooking the guard that was on duty, she spoke into the crystal as the connection still held, "Sorry about the way I contacted you but it was the only way to get past whatever field you have that protects you from normal scrying. Apparently I decided subconsciously to head in your direction so I'll be at the Bannered Mare shortly." She carefully ended the connection and, making sure her wings, tail and horns were hidden, opened the main gate. As she entered the Bannered Mare she carefully skirted the fire on the other side from Panzer to prevent being lashed out at by the metal guard wolf and headed up the stairs to the room she knew Mathias would be in. She stepped into the room and sighed, looking at Mathias and leaning against the door jam as she spoke, "Ok you had the right of it for the most part, however there are a couple of points I want to clear up and set right before things get more out of hand. The first being the incident with Mora, because I had a business contract with him he could summon me at any time while it was in effect. That contract was nullified after I handed the book over to him, the truth of the mater is he summoned me to come to him and that he would meet me. The second is the trapped scroll, which if Sam hadn't intervened would have banished me from this plain when I opened it as it was set to trigger on the opener, according to Sam, which would have meant I would have opened it unless Star, or another, had ripped it from my hands." This was all said in a quiet voice that only Mathias could hear, and she finished off with one topic that had cut her a little, "As for secret keeping I will have you know that I carry some of your kinds smithing secrets thanks to one of the Vaalsark smiths I met in the Misty Grove that wasn't drunk. He showed me how to craft Gauntlets and Boots that accommodated claws and Tail armor of both rigid and chain verities and I would never give those to Mora. He actually asked me once to give away the secrets of the Noiral and I ended up pulling one of his bookshelves down on top of him kinetically when he didn't take no for an answer. Needless to say he doesn't look for secrets from me anymore. And I shut Mora out of my mind a long time ago and he cant peek in even when I'm sleeping, Bal on the other hand can only sneak in while I sleep and Sam can get in at any time." She waited for his response, hopping that he understood what she was trying to tell him.
Mathias carefully tipped the water from his seeing dish into a flask, the same he'd taken it from, as Alex ended the connection. He heard the door to the Bannered Mare open, then saw Alex walk in soon after. He gave a light chuckle as she moved in a wide path away from Panzer, knowing that the old wolf was content with resting next to the hot fire, but also that he wouldn't attack unless needed. As Alex headed up the stairs, Mathias got off the balcony and headed into his room, sitting on the bed.
Alex had started right up where the conversation cut out, and he smiled to himself. ^I'll give her credit, her memory is as sharp as a dagger's edge.^ he thought, before listening as she mentioned that Mora only had the ability to teleport to her from the business deal they had, the trapped scroll that contained a dangerous and powerful curse, one that would have been rather bad if it'd fallen in anyone's hands, had Sanguine not intervened, and then led into the fact of secret keeping.
He waited a few moments to calm his mind from the whirlwind of information, then spoke, also rather quietly, “Mora is a trickster. Always remember that. He wants secrets at any cost, and any deal with him, anything he gives, or takes, is likely to harm someone. It is why I don't like to deal with him. As for the trapped scroll, I was more upset that Mora had nearly pulled off a trap, and had tried to use you as a messenger to do it. In my irritation about the whole hunted-by-Harkon mess, I blew up at you about it, and I shouldn't have.”
Mathias calmed slightly at the knowledge that Alex knew some of the smithing secrets of the Vaalsark. “At least I am not the last who knows how to make some Vaalsark armor. I can work with soul gems, something that was never taught, never passed down from those who knew it. You've witnessed my work before, although that was a rather crude weapon, even by my standards. It was sharp, sure, but age and use made it brittle. As for what I've done to Mora in retaliation for him asking my secrets, have you ever noticed when he assumes a mortal form, he walks with a limp? I nearly burned him in half with a solar fireball. Then I asked Dagon to help me while we were in Apocrypha, and he recreated the Deadlands there, caught Mora with a volcano, and generally created chaos.” he said.
“Regarding Mora, it's good that you've shut him out of your mind. As for Molag Bal, I don't like him, but I can put up with him on the aspect that when he attacks us, it is merely his nature. Plus, I don't think he'd want to mess with me on a one-on-one level with my knowledge of spells anymore. As for Sanguine, well, I don't know him much, other than that he's the Daedric Lord of Drunken Parties, from what Dagon has told me. As for the Daedra who can access my mind, there are two. I know Meridia can contact me, as at one point, I did get Dawnbreaker, though I rarely wield it, and I'm very sure Mehrunes Dagon has contacted me a few times mentally, though he prefers sending Dremora. Apparently I have a loud voice, even before I really began practicing with the Thu'um.”
Mathias waved her over to the table, looking a little more relaxed now. “If you're hungry, yell something down from the balcony. I'm more than capable of paying for any meals you want.” he said, before looking around the room lightly. “I'm planning on staying a while. Brought my bedroll because these beds are just too small for my kind. I know, I could have made a camp outside Whiterun, saved myself the gold, and eaten something I'd hunted down, I just didn't feel like doing that. There will be enough of that between here and Solitude.”
Alex smiled fully, now looking more relaxed, as she moved to the chair and sat down. She was about to speak when Cian contacted her, {Where in the blazes did you blink off to?} he asked sounding a little freaked. Alex looked at Mathias and winced a little remembering what had happened the last time Cian had contacted her and said, "Cian is contacting me, no worries," before replying to Cian. {At Whiterun currently and, if you want to catch up, Mathias is planing on staying for a while ...} {Mathias?!} Cian repeated, cutting his sister off, {Wait you mean the two of you aren't having a screaming match for once, that's a relief. I'll wait outside the gate for you two then} He abruptly cut off the connection and called Umarithial, who he mounted and started heading to Whiterun tho meet up with Alex and Mathias.
Alex started a little at the abrupt end of the transmission and looked at Mathias. "Now Cian is going to meet us at the main gate, I told him where we were so e would stop freaking out, and I really cant shake him for long because of the nature of the agreement with Stendarr." She shook her head a little and sighed. "Anyway Solitude? mind if I, or rather we, join you. The others split and I really don't feel like visiting the Isles right now. Besides I feel more of a ... connection to you because of the whole Dragon priest/Forgemaster thing." She thought for a moment and nodded to herself. "Ever since I saw your soul gem blade I've been meaning to ask you how to make them and, as I have learned from experience that most knowledge is never free, I can teach you Dragon Priest Craft in exchange. But that will come at a later time." She watched Mathias carefully waiting for a response.
Star wakes up four hours after falling asleep in the crater he made, disoriented from having his mind and body reboot from the stress of a severe nervous breakdown. He gets to his feet, muttering and holding his head, and leans against one of the steeper walls of the crater he made while getting himself back up to speed on what has happened, reviewing his memories and stretching.
^ Well.... this hasn't happened in a while. Too much crap too fast, and lots of it. One of my most insane weeks yet. Fighting Mora, getting the first severe injury I've had in a really long time, being mentally assaulted, that mess at the Nightgate inn, and everything else after and in between up to the damn vampire attack squad. I went skooma-level nuts from it all. Time to see exactly what went on when I snapped and went from my usual self to the level of a room full of scamps on skooma mentally. ^
Star lifts off, flying up out of the crater, and flies up to a great height, seeing the whole of the Shivering Isles under him as he reviews what happened after his stress broke his limits. He only takes about half an hour due to his speed of thought, making sure he isolates his remembered emotions so he can review what happened without having a relapse.
^ So... I basically snapped when the vampires showed up. Tar and feathering, cabbages, seaweed, all with little regard for concealing energy. Then, because I was too stressed to suppress my sensory abilities to a manageable level, all the hostility flying around got to me, and Mathias chewing out Alex was the last straw that I couldn't take without snapping. I dropped a good portion of Sheogorath's gag gift of a lifetime supply of moldy mammoth cheese all over the place, completely covering Mathias in goop. Eolhin panicked and took off at the speed of light, dropping gelatin cliff racers everywhere, landing a whole pile of them on Mathias, making a bursting mess. Then my portal to the Shivering Isles, and somewhere in the middle of all this I collapsed the group telepathy channel. I think that's it, other than bombing this location with fire. Priority one, check on where the portal was, it will have faded out by now, but someone or something may have come through. ^
Star goes into a descent, heading for New Sheoth from above. As he descends through the air, he corrects various imbalances in his energy from his earlier nervous breakdown. Some of the images from when he freaked out are rather amusing as he goes through them while doing this, the lime cliff racers and cheese bombing being the most amusing. Star can't help it, the scene is funny. Except to Mathias of course, who Star will be avoiding for a bit in order to give him a chance to cool down. Star knows that Mathias must have been utterly furious after that incident. Smelly, runny, moldy cheese and Jello everywhere are unpleasant things to wear.
^ He's going to be quite irate about that one for a while, even if he realizes it was nothing more than a spaz attack. Alex and Cian should be alright, I had better worry about Eolhin, Zrika, and Tenebrae before anything else. ^
After another half hour, Star is at a low enough altitude to come in for a landing. A full six hours and a half hours have passed since he entered the Shivering Isles through his portal, it had taken him half an hour to find the abandoned, Greymarch-ruined fort. Star drops down right in the middle of the palace grounds, like a purple comet. The entire city likely saw it, but he took care not to create an earthquake or anything. He then heads for the Mania side of the city to check where his portal had been, stopping at the spot and examining the area with the occasional annoyed arm wave to chase off inquisitive Golden Saints. His reputation is well known here, both Saints and Seducers know that ticking him off usually results in random, incredibly messy pranks. Picking up on Zrika and Tenebrae's extremely faint lingering energy signatures, he heads in their direction, intending to meet them and see if they are okay.
Mathias nodded as Alex mentioned it was just Cian contacting her, and that he'd meet with them at the main gate of Whiterun. “I don't mind if the pair of you join me. The Shivering Isles may be fun once in a while, but I'm not sure Sheogorath would appreciate the level of insanity that would likely occur if most of us were in there at the same time.” he said. “As for the connection, I think I understand it. We learned a name for the other that, to some degree, holds power.”
Mathias gave a light smile as Alex mentioned wanting to learn how to make blades from soul gems. “Knowledge is never free, but learning how to craft as the Dragon Priests once did would be a fair trade for learning to craft with soul gems. Soul gems are a little tough to work with. They require a lot of heat to get to a point where they can be reshaped, but a little more heat and they melt into a puddle and become worthless. You'll need to be comfortable using magic during smithing, as the molten soul gems tend to cling to everything otherwise. You shape the blade using magic, then let it air cool. The end result is a blade that is really sharp. I don't need a forge to heat the soul gems, I just use magic. More controlled.” he said. He got up and placed a simple ward over the doorway from the stairs, and another over the doorway to the balcony. “Those wards should do just enough to keep us safe. It blocks out those with ill intent, including mental intrusions from the Daedra. I usually apply them on tents when I'm in the wild, helps prevent the Daedra from being a royal pain.”
“I'll teach you how to make a soul gem blade some time, when we're not around things that easily burn.” Mathias said, before throwing his bedroll on the floor and laying on it. “Yes, I can sleep in my armor. Warrior's habit. Getting into and out of armor takes a lot of time, and I've never trusted inns to be exactly safe places. Safer than the wilds, sure, though at least in the wilds, you have more room to move if things happen.” he mentioned, before lightly falling asleep.
Alex nodded as Mathias replied and then drooped off to sleep. ^I said most of the time because between friends I sometimes give knowledge, like summoning spells for myself, for free because I can trust them.^ she thought as she watched him sleep, not feeling tired herself, and thought about the connection between the dragon priests and the dragons, and the contract that bound them together that had never fully been broken. ^I will have to try and explain that at some point, as well as the reason I am called Child of the Elder Scroll Warlord at some point. That last bit will have to wait until the whole group is back together, and I will need to share that memory with them. I will give proper warning and take out all pain from it first, maybe now would be a good time to make a copy of that and tuck it away for when it is needed.^ While she waited for Mathias to wake Alex sorted and copied the memory, tucking it away into the proper places for when the time was right. She also tackled a bit more of the book on the Dwemer she had received.
Mathias slowly woke two hours later, getting up quietly and stretching, preparing himself for a long trip. He then carefully dropped his wards, ready to travel. Mathias looked to Alex, motioned to her to follow, and headed down the stairs. Panzer got up, walking to Mathias' side, his paws clinking on the floor.
He opened the door to the Bannered Mare and stepped into the streets of Whiterun, moving through the market swiftly, heading for the Whiterun Gate. Mathias tried to slow his pace, knowing Alex would have a hard time keeping up otherwise, as he headed through the gate and down to the stables.
“We should wait here for Cian. With any luck, he'll be here shortly and we won't have to wait very long, and we can be on the way to Solitude.” Mathias said, keeping watch over the road.
Alex looked up from her book and saw that Mathias was up and was getting ready to leave. She put her book away and busied herself with making sure she had the equipment necessary for the long trip. Catching Mathias's signal to follow him out of the corner of her eye she followed him out of the Bannered Mare and Whiterun. Before she could react to Mathias's statement she heard the sound of dog claws as Storm ran to meet her giving happy barks, Cian walked up to them and spoke, "I am here actually, been waiting for only a little bit though." He looked at Alex and shook his head. Alex pulled a small bottle out of her bag and drank from it. She winced as a pair of dragon wings materialized on her back. "I hate the taste of those things, but at least I'll be able to keep up better this way." She said looking at Mathias. She made sure she was not right next to anyone and flew into the sky waiting for the others to start moving, hovering a little above the outside walls of the city to watch for danger.
Mathias looked to Cian and Alex, then decided to inform Cian of his intended destination. “I'm headed toward Solitude, Cian. I'm not sure how quickly you can travel, but I can either travel by foot or by sky. I don't intend on going too slowly.” he said, before heading toward the road. “I'll stick to the road for now. You might find it more comfortable to stay on horseback, you'll travel faster, and you won't have to stare up at me if you choose to talk.”
Mathias grimaced at the clattering Panzer was making on the stone road, then pulled a small leather pouch out of his bag, putting four leather paw-boots over Panzer's paws. “That's better. He'll wear through those by Solitude, but at least we won't have to put up with clanking and rattling on the way.”
Mathias turned on the road to Solitude, heading off at a reasonable pace. Cian would be able to keep up easily on horseback, but he was moving fast enough that Alex wouldn't be at risk of falling out of the sky. “Cian, think you'll be able to make Rorikstead before we need a rest?”
Cian looked up at Mathias and nodded, moving to his horse and mounting. "I can make it at least to Rorikstead before Umarithial will need a rest," he said looking up at Alex as she moved to follow them, {You going to fly all the way there?} Cian asked her telepathically, {Yes,} Alex replied along the same connection, {I need to stretch my wings.} Cian thought for a moment before extending an invitation to Mathias to join in the channel so he could hear Alex too. {I know you probably don't trust me at the moment but this is just so we can talk to Alex who is up there, and I know from experience that it is hard for her to hold two mental connections at once."
Mathias nodded, accepting the connection to Cian and Alex's channel. He focused to keep his voice quiet, knowing he could be a little overwhelming to those not used to his mental strength. ^”I don't trust you fully, but I trust you as I trust Alex. The Ningheim are known for their mental strength and abilities. I may be strong with my mental voice, but you are as well.”^ Mathias replied, still keeping a quick pace on foot, though looked over at Cian, noticing that he still stood taller than Cian, even with Cian being on horseback.
The small group made it to Rorikstead in a few hours, meeting no trouble on the way. Mathias walked into the Frostfruit Inn, then set 30 gold coins on the counter to rent three rooms. “We'll rest for now. As long as is needed.” Mathias said.
Alex landed next to Umarithial as Cian followed Mathias inside. She drank the potion to hide her wings and walked into the inn. Cian had taken his seat by the fire, and Alex moved over to him and sat down, burying herself in the Dwemer book again. {You can actually read that?} Cian asked{Yes, especially since it was translated into a language I actually understand.} Alex replied looking up from it. She returned to her book as Cian moved to one of the rented rooms to sleep for a little.
Mathias settled at one of the tables, opening his journal and making another entry. “It's not been an easy day. First, we were attacked by vampires from Harkon's court. Leave it to Hermaeus Mora to be busy trying to kill us with our enemies. I may walk the path of peace, but I will write a letter to Mehrunes Dagon to smash his wrinkly, tentacled face through every bookshelf in Apocrypha. As if the attack weren't bad enough, Star lost his mind – I can only assume from stress – and created a mess. He dropped moldy cheese on me, as well as tried to hit Alex and Cian with it. Of course, because Eolhin and Star were, I can only guess, sharing some form of mental link, when Star went nuts, then vanished through a portal, Eolhin lost it, dumped green, squishy cliff-racers on me, and vanished. Who knows when or where she is. I left the main group after that. Alex contacted me later, then joined me. Her brother joined us a couple hours later, and we traveled to Rorikstead, where we now rest for a while.” he wrote, before closing his journal.
He looked to make sure the innkeeper wasn't paying attention, then got out a sheet of parchment and started writing with Daedric runes. Mathias' hand was precise, yet swift, as if he'd written in Daedric for a long time. He looked to Alex, then said quietly, “I'm going to step outside for a minute. I'm sure the innkeeper wouldn't appreciate me summoning a Dremora in the building. I need to send a letter to Dagon.”
Mathias stepped outside, behind the building, and summoned a Dremora. “Take this to Mehrunes Dagon. Tell him Valkynaz Valdaan wants to make a statement with this. I want you to then gather as many of Hermaeus Mora's enemies as you can in the Deadlands and keep a standing force ready to attack at a moment's notice.” Mathias said, handing the Dremora the sealed letter. The Dremora vanished and Mathias went back inside.
Alex nodded to Mathias as he walked out the door. Alex put away her book and waited for Mathias to return from his summoning before asking her question, placing a muffle block over her brother so they wouldn't wake him. {So, why are you headed for Solitude?}
Two hours had passed since the two went through the portal to shivering isles, and since then it has also been two hours that Tenebrae has been chasing Zrika around. ~What ever set her off has one strong hold. Can't even get a glimpse of it..~ The big cat thought with a growl. He was fit, and he can run for a long time, but this was a bit too much for his current form to handle. His eyes closed thinking of something to say. "Calm down!" Tenebrae mewed toward Zrika, but when he opened his eyes she was no where to be found. ~...I'm going to have to put a leash on her one of these days...~ Tenebrae stopped running and looked around. Making sure that he did indeed lose her. Once that was confirmed, he scented the air and followed Zrika's scent. An hour later he found the girl collapsed under a tree. He also, took note, that the tree had an imprint of Zrika's head smashed into it. "Well then. Thank you tree."
Zrika woke up around three hours later, muttering about her luck with threes. Tenebrae could only chuckle at her small tree-related anger. "So did that knock some sense into you or do you need to run into another tree again?" Zrika gave Tenebrae a look of annoyance, but with a shrug she nodded. "Yeah. I'm okay now." She sat down and pulled her hood to cover her eyes a little. "This looks like the Shivering isles.. But the colors here are bright.." Tenebrae decided to take a better look of his surroundings, after all this was his first time in the Mad god's realm. Though after a few seconds, he had to agree. The colors here were a bit on the bright side. "There were golden saints when we came through Fallingstar's portal. I guess this is the Mania side. Unless Dementia got all cheery somehow."
Tenebrae's ears flicked, he was slightly worried that Zrika knew this much about this realm. But he decided not to show it and sat down beside the girl. "So your memory is coming back?" The big cat asked, yawning. ~Now that I see it.. These colors are staring to strain my eyes..~ Zrika didn't answer the big cat, and just shrugged. Tenebrae sighed and closed his extra eyes. "So... Then.. Any idea where we are or how to leave this place?" Zrika pulled her hood down more, and shook her head. "Not a clue on either." This left the big cat sighing. "Alright. Then lets rest a bit more and try to find Fallingstar. He will know the way out." Tenebrae saw Zrika nod and he closed his four original eyes. ~A 15 minute break should be enough for my eyes..~
^”Many reasons, Alex. First, I wanted distance. In what irrational thoughts I had, I wanted to put as much distance between me and the sheer insanity that happened. Second, and also one of the reasons I was heading this way, I can still get to Falskaar from here. Had no one followed, I could very easily get to Falskaar. I could still do that, but now that I'm thinking more logically, more rationally, I realize not many would know how to get that portal open. But the biggest reason I'm here was because I was sent a pardon letter by the Thalmor. I will no longer be hunted for my crimes.”^ Mathias replied, sitting at one of the tables.
He then stated, ^”At this point, all I want to do is get this damn letter signed by the required beings, and then head out toward Riften. I can get us there quickly, but... while I can fly, and you can fly, Cian can't. I'll deal with my letter in the morning.”^
Alex nodded and thought behind her mental barriers, ^I can’t keep it from him anymore; he has a right to know exactly what is between us on my side at least.^ {what I am about to say I haven’t been keeping from you intentionally, I just haven’t been able to think of the right words to explain what is going on. If I had known that what I did then would have such a ramification now I probably wouldn’t have taken the chance. You remember when we were at the Bannered Mare I talked about a connection we had, well It isn’t just because we know each others dragon names. It is, for me at least, because of a contract I signed that made me the Dragonling of Ahgrohikkvith, which pretty much means I was sworn to protect him which is what led to my unmaking. After he sacrificed his immortality so that I could be reborn that contract lay dormant, that is until I met you. Now that contract has changed so that the same connection I once had to Ahgrohikkvith has now graphed itself to you. In other words I am sworn to protect you now.} She looked at him and thought about the fact that it had at least been him and not one of the dragons they would have to fight.
Mathias gave a lightly worried look as Alex mentioned her contract with Ahgrohikkvith, though was more worried to know that the same contract, once long dormant, was now bound to him. His thoughts were lightly guarded, though he kept his emotions in check to not alarm Alex. ^Her contract bound her to Ahgrohikkvith, until she was reborn. Now, for whatever strange reason, it has bound her to me. He who is only half dragon, who shares the blood of Vulthuryol. This worries me. I already have seen what happens to those who are bound by contracts, they... they don't pass to the spirit realm until their duty is fulfilled, and yet I am immortal. Well, as immortal as any being of flesh and blood can get.^ he thought, doing his best to keep from seeming alarmed.
^”I'm... not entirely sure what to think of that. I mean, in some ways, I see it as a good thing that your contract chose me, but only because it could just as easily have chosen Alduin. On the other hand, I'm worried. Sure, dragons are immortal, but, so far as I have seen, I am as well, at least as much as a flesh and blood being can be.”^ Mathias replied to her, after a careful few moments.
^”What, if I may ask, exactly does this contract require? I'd like to avoid stepping on one another's toes when it comes to dealing with it.”^ Mathias asked a few minutes later.
Star wanders through New Sheoth until he reaches a certain tree, having followed the lingering, extremely faint energies left behind by Zrika and Tenebrae passing through. Seeing that both of them are asleep when finally finding them, Star chuckles to himself and shakes his head, the situation of them both being asleep, with Zrika sporting a slight bump from apparently running into the tree full tilt, is simply a little absurd to him, an unexpected peaceful scene after the sheer drama of the past week. Star leans against the nearest wall, resolving to wait until they wake up. He's a little obvious - few have a prehensile tail, and fewer still walk around in armor made of Heart Stones. He pulls out a massive fruit smoothie from thin air. and sips at it while leaning against the wall and thinking.
^ Well, this is the last thing I expected to see after they went through my unstable portal. Or at least close to it. Now I just have to give them a portal to wherever they want to go when they wake up, and get to that Shrine of Talos to clean up my mess, then track down Eolhin. Or they may want to tag along, fine with me. ^
Star sips at his wine-barrel sized drink against the wall, waiting for them to wake up as he runs various thoughts through his head.
{It's not that kind of contract,} Alex said after a moment, {It doesn't have terms that one has to follow, it's more of an agreement that I will protect the person that holds the contract until I meet my end with no way of returning, that also means that you can summon me using my dragon name and can command me in situations that I deem appropriate. If you are worried because of your immortality, let me say that I can only be banished from this realm and can only be killed if my soul is torn apart in the realm I am fully connected to, the Misty Grove.} She looked at him, {I wish I remembered more about it, maybe Paarthurnax would be able to give us a better idea of what it is.} The dragon name was said with no power behind it as she didn't want to cause complications. {He stays at the peak of the Throat of the World and is the head of the Graybeards, those who study the way of the voice if I remember correctly. If you wish we can head in the direction of Ivarstead after you finish your business in Solitude.} She watched him and hoped he understood what she was saying.
Mathias nodded lightly. ^”I do not know the Graybeards, but I can certainly agree to traveling to Ivarstead.”^ he said after a while. ^”Obviously, I need to deal with this situation soon. I'm tired of being hunted by the Thalmor at every step.”^ Mathias then headed toward one of the rooms and settled onto his bedroll. ^”I'm going to leave the mental connection for now. Makes it easier to guard my mind. I don't want someone poking in where they don't belong.”^ he said, before carefully dropping the connection and falling asleep after guarding his mind.
The night passed without incident, and Mathias got up early, intending on dealing with the letter before it could waste yet another day. He'd managed to have a good night of sleep, no nightmares and no troubles, though he knew there were still things that had to be done. ^I may be traveling with Alex and Cian, but that means Star, Eolhin, Zrika, and Tenebrae are out in the Wild. Star's portal, I think, was the Shivering Isles. I have a permanent gateway there, but I cannot get to it from here. I have little desire to travel to Cyrodiil and my house in Leyawiin. I also know that Star sided to Mania, I sided with Dementia. Our portals would be in those respective realms. Zrika and Tenebrae are nearly impossible to separate, so wherever they went, they'd be together. Eolhin... She can travel at the speed of light over great distances. She could be anywhere. Star should be able to find her. Probably for the best, Star's proven time and again to be both durable and also a friend to Eolhin.^ he thought, trying to figure their next big plan.
^I know meeting the Graybeards is a wise move. Alex is right, the Old One should be able to tell us more about this contract. All I know is that the two of us somewhat have a conflict of interest. She could get very badly hurt trying to defend me against something that I could otherwise handle on my own. At the same time, I have very strong protective instincts, and could easily throw myself between an enemy and her, despite her ability to survive, merely banished from a realm. I've proven time and again to be hard to kill, but I'm very sure it's possible. My dragon blood might give me immortality and additional advantages, but it can't make me indestructible. Only strength of spirit can do that, and my spirit, while strong, is far from strong enough. And unlike one's body, or the mind, the spirit can't be changed. Still, with luck, the Old One should be able to give us some help, even if it is merely understanding.^
The air outside Rorikstead was cool, and the sun was barely starting to rise. Mathias stood in the doorway, planning the journey. ^They can't run like I can. Alex can fly, but Cian is stuck riding on horseback. Still, there is a way to make it to Solitude in a matter of minutes, provided I use a portal spell. I hate ritual spells. So much time spent making little marks and lining everything up just fine in order to make one portal with enough charge to get from just outside Rorikstead to just outside Solitude's stables. I could do so, but I'd have to ask, and there's risk that the energy flare could be felt. I'll ask when everyone's awake.^
Alex moved to the room that wasn't occupied and lay on the bed shortly after Mathias left the connection. She drifted off to sleep and awoke just before dawn thinking about a book she used to scribble spell ideas and actual spells into and grabbed her bag to look for it ^Where in the name of Oblivion did I put it ... ah here it is,^ she thought as she extricated the journal from a number of other books at the bottom of the bag. She placed the book in the carrier on her belt and headed for the door and was a little startled to see Mathias already up and in deep thought. She didn't say anything, not wanting to break his concentration, and waited for him to speak wondering what was on his mind.
Zrika yawned, waking up and rubbed her eyes. ~Okay that was more than 15 minutes. i bet Tenebrae is giving me glares right now..~ She pulled her hood up a little to be able to see but was surprised that Tenebrae was still fast asleep. A sigh of relief escaped her before she caught the sight of Fallingstar leaning on a wall nearby. "Hiya!" She said softly, not wanting to wake the big cat before getting up and walking over to stand next to Fallingstar. "Are you okay? Things went crazy back there.. From what I saw anyway." Zrika looked at he ground, slight guilt came over her, because she was of no help during the attack. but the feeling faded when Tenebrae let off a snoring purr. "And then he says I'm annoying while I sleep!" Zrika giggled. Letting her tail wag a little, minding the wall. She kept her eyes on Tenebrae, and smiled a little when Tenebrae started to mew about chasing a rabbit in his sleep. However her attention despite this, was focused on Fallingstar.
Mathias looked to Alex as she startled slightly. “I was trying to think of ways to get to Solitude without running the risk of us being discovered. I've decided it'd be wise for us to keep traveling on foot, but there's a risk of passing by a bandit camp. I can fight if we need to. The other option is for me to open a portal between here and Solitude, though that could send up an energy flare that could be seen by those who know what to look for. Of course, I'm willing to hear any suggestions you have as well.” he said. Panzer got up from next to the fire and wandered over to Mathias and Alex, quite ready to travel the instant the group was ready to go.
Star looks up as Zrika comes over, almost done with his giant drink by the time she wakes up. He finishes the last bit shortly after her question, then puts the giant, empty drink container away in a pocket dimension and answers her.
" I'm alright now, I just had to blow off a lot of steam. Too much happened too fast, and I had.... what do people call it outside of the Isles again? Oh right, a nervous breakdown. Or, how Sheogorath would put it, a hilarious burst of mania accompanied by chaos. Vampires attacking on top of everything else that happened recently was too much. I was worried when I saw you and Tenebrae had come through my portal, the Isles can be very dangerous when you get lost. It's good to see that both of you are okay. "
Star stretches, hands raised above his head against the wall, then goes back to leaning on it. He has a odd, amused expression.
" Did you see what happened to Mathias? He's going to be grumpy at me for that. " ( Star chuckles ) " Well, now that you're up, I can take you wherever you want to go, so you aren't trapped here in the Shivering Isles. I have to clean up the mess I made at the Shrine of Talos, and will be looking for Eolhin after that. No plans other than that at the moment. You and Tenebrae can come along if you want when I look for Eolhin, but you probably don't want to visit the Shrine with me, it's likely to smell something fierce, and some of my enemies might be there after what happened to Harkon's vampires. After Tenebrae wakes up, we can leave whenever you're ready. "
Star looks over at the main palace of the city, looking curious about something. " It's a bit odd that Sheogorath hasn't tracked me down yet, or sent Haskill to, but I did hear a lot of laughter coming from the main palace when I landed earlier - so he's probably busy watching my earlier fit over and over again in a mirror or something. He always gets a kick out of what happens when I lose it and do something unexpected. As for why he might look for me - I well... turned a five-thousand year old ruin into a crater after coming here. Nobody was there, but it's generally a bad idea to blow part of a Daedric Lord's realm up. I guess he must not mind that much about that particular spot. "
Star changes position, sitting in midair while levitating as he pulls out a few dozen marbles of various sizes after he's done talking and starts making them orbit each other like planets around a sun, and moons around the planets over his head. He's still paying attention to Zrika, but needs something to amuse him so he stays awake after the long week he's had.
Alex nodded and thought for a moment, "If you feel comfortable using a portal then I'm all for it," she responded. "I'll go wake up Cian while you decide what to do." Alex moved to her brothers room and woke him up, "It's time to get ready to go," Alex said before returning to Mathias.
Mathias pondered the journey, trying to decide the best course of action. ^If we go past the bandits at Robber's Gorge, they're likely to drop rocks on us. I could blind them, but they could still drop those rocks. To avoid that nightmare, the magic used to stop the bandits without killing them, we'd send up so many energy flares that... no. We can't travel that way. I'll have to use a portal.^ he thought.
He got out his spell-book, flipping through the pages. ^Where is that old spell of mine? I've got a portal that should mask the exit, even if it is a flare here.^ He opened his ancient map, picking an area just beyond Rorikstead and focusing on it, recalling the area in his mind. ^Just far enough from town that I should be able to do this spell right. It still requires more energy than I can spare on my own, even with my magicka regeneration. I have a spare power crystal, which might work.^ he thought, then reached into his satchel, taking out a darkly colored crystal. He poured his energy and his reserves into it, relying on the Stalhrim armor beneath his robe to keep him cool as he did so. The crystal flickered, taking on a calm blue color before it flared vividly, casting a pale blue light over everything in the room.
Mathias sat there for nearly an hour, the crystal showing no sign of change as his energy replenished rapidly. After he felt renewed again, he grasped for the glowing gem, then poured his reserves into it again, increasing the brightness until it was nearly white. “Between this and what I'll have by then, I'll have just enough to make the portal. On this side, it'll be a beacon of energy, but no one will be able to find the exit once it closes.” he mentioned to Alex. “I've used these portals exactly twice. Think of your old lore, you know of the type I mean, and you'll know when, where, and why.” he said to her, referencing his time in the Dark Brotherhood.
He got up, heading for the door with the brightly glowing crystal in one hand, and his spell-book in the other. Mathias headed between the buildings, intending on traveling to the Shrine of Akatosh. He took care to not move too quickly, so that Cian could keep up. His staff finally turned dark as Mathias recalled the energy he used to keep it lit, knowing he'd need every scrap of his magicka to do this the right way. ^No mistakes. I can't afford mistakes. Mistakes could cost my companions their lives.^ he thought.
They reached the shrine, and despite Mathias not having any religious preferences to speak of, he prayed at the Shrine of Akatosh. While his mind and voice were silent, Akatosh certainly knew of Mathias' silent prayer, that there was no mocking in it, and so bestowed his blessing upon the ancient Vaalsark, not just increasing his magicka regeneration for a short time, but fully saturating his reserves with enough energy to not need the crystal. He winced and growled in pain, looking back to the twins.
“I will be fine.” he growled out, his eyes glowing from the amount of energy he now had stored within him. His aura was wild, demanding to be set free, and so Mathias made his marks on the ground, taking care to make them without error, knowing he had only one chance at this. He looked to his journal at times, comparing the marks written in ink to the marks made in shining golden dust.
With the marks complete, Mathias spoke the incantation written in his native tongue, and the energy within him flared, feeling the call of a spell not used since the early Third Era. The energy was unleashed, and within moments, the golden dust melted into gold, followed by a rushing roar as the portal opened, showing the road to Solitude, just nearby Meridia's temple. “Go, now. I shall follow.” he said, as Panzer stepped through the portal.
Once Alex and Cian had gone through, Mathias stepped through as well, then spoke the incantation to dispel the portal, leaving only a faint energy beacon near a shrine of Akatosh, and some strange golden marks burned into the ground, as had last been seen in the Temple of the One in the year 41 of the Third Era, just after the death of Pelagius I, and one time before that, in the Year 431 of the Second Era, burned into the floor of Potentate Savirien-Chorak's bedchamber. On the Solitude side of the portal, the whispers of magic dissipated the instant the portal had closed, leaving them nearly untraceable. Mathias put the glowing crystal away, knowing the worth of having an instant boost of energy available, especially now that his energy followed a similar spectrum to the two energy beings in their group.
Mathias looked worn, despite the trip being instant, as he'd provided the energy to get Alex, Cian, Panzer, Umarithial, and himself from Rorikstead to Solitude. The energy needed for that was equivalent to what they would all have spent to travel on foot. “We got lucky. Akatosh provided most of that energy, but it still drained what I had to spare. I won't drain from the crystal, though. I should keep that for an emergency. I just need to take it easy on the walk there. Between holding that energy back and actually traveling through the portal, I used more magic than usual. Someone is sure to have felt that one. The good news is, we're dust in the wind. No one knows where we ended up. I know this because I've used this twice before. Both times while in the service of the Dark Brotherhood.” Mathias said, before walking up the road.
Cian got up at his sisters call and got ready for travel, joining his sister soon after. The pair watched Mathias charge his crystal and Cian looked puzzled by Mathias's remark, but Alex nodded knowingly. The two followed Mathias to the Shrine of Akatosh and watched as Mathias prepared to open the portal. ^Those markings he's making look familiar, but I can't quite remember from where?^ Alex thought as she watched. Cian followed Panzer through the portal, bringing Umarithial with him. Before she entered Alex sent Storm off, she could collect him later. She stepped through the portal and a chill ran up her spine. Alex quickly sent a small message to Meridia that she was only passing through and the chill eased. She looked at Mathias after he closed the portal and nodded. Cian's mouth fell open at the mention of Mathias being Dark Brotherhood and spoke up quickly, "Just don't say that while we're in Solitude, the last thing we need is a fight with the Penitus Oculatus. Just giving a heads up in any case." Alex laughed at her brother knowing full well that Mathias could hold his own if needed.
"That was a bit much with the vampires and all. Though I think I would prefer calling that break down the latter. Much better to think of it as that than a nervous break down. And... Sorry about going through the portal wasn't in the right mind at the time. And I'm quite glad we didn't get completely lost.. First time I've really wandered into Mania... I think? " Zrika tilted her head thinking. She let her attention wander over to Tenebrae, who seemed to be waking up. The big cat opened all his eyes at once and blinked them Zrika slightly shuddered at the sight. But that was the only indication that she found the big cat's eyes creepy, again.
Zrika giggled a bit at the mention of what had happened to Mathias. "Yep saw that. That was funny. Though at first it was quite shocking." Tenebrae sat down beside Zrika and gave a small mumble as though he agreed. Most of his extra eye were closed save the ones on his chest and shoulders. "Is this place always so brightly colorful..?" Zrika heard the cat yawn before she decided to think about on what Fallingstar had said. After what it seemed like five minutes she nodded to herself and looked at Fallingstar. "We would like to, or rather I." she gave a shrug using her tail to point at Tenebrae. "Would like to help you find Eolhin. I'm worried for her. As for the shrine.. I might need to avoid that. Don't want to see frozen vampires like that again. However if you do need help, we can come with you to there regardless." She wagged her tail, again minding the wall where as Tenebrae only rolled his extra eyes.
"I'll give a guess that whatever seems delightfully mad to the mad god, he's okay with it." Tenebrae said. The big cat got up to stretch out his body, causing some eyes to open but they closed as soon as he was done. "As for where we could go while you go to the shrine in the event you do not need us. You may send us to Bruma. I myself need to pick up my armor. Just in case this curse runs out in an unexpected time." As he was speaking, his left fore-paw shifted to look like his back paws. Which was just talons. "Speak of the shift." He mumbled afterward. Tail flicking in annoyance. Tenebrae did take notice in Fallingstar's little orbit of marbles. But decided not to comment. Though, the big cat did seem to be smiling a little.
“You don't live to be my age, Cian, by being careless. I trust Alex, and by some extension, you. The last two times I used that portal, I was escaping from a much more capable group of defenders. The first time I used that spell was the year 431 of the Second Era. The second time was the year 41 of the Third Era. If you know your history, or if you can convince Alex to mention some of the ancient lore, you'll know who I was hired on to deal with. As for mentioning it in Solitude, I had no plans to.”
Mathias headed toward Solitude, though stopped near the carriage. “I have a line of credit on the carriages. I tend to send things around with them. I planned to go here alone, but I was glad of the company on the trip. However, I cannot walk the path of peace while traveling with companions, so for now, I leave you. If you have need of me, I will be in Proudspire Manor, but unless the need is great, I won't travel. There's enough money to take the two of you just about anywhere in Skyrim you would want to go.”
Mathias left them with those parting words, then headed for the gate to Solitude. He walked in, headed up to Castle Dour, where Titus Mede II and Queen Ayrenn were waiting, and presented his pardon letter. Within moments, it was signed, stamped, sealed, and word sent by Mages to the far corners of the world that Mathias Valdaan was no longer an enemy of the Thalmor or the Empire. Soon after that, he left Castle Dour and headed home to Proudspire Manor, needing a good rest after the journey.
Alex watched Mathias walk away, wondering what would happen now. Just as she was about to comment a courier ran up to them addressing Cian. “I have a letter for you from Isran of the Dawnguard.” He said and, handing over the letter, headed off for his next delivery. Cian opened the letter and swore under his breath, “I am needed at the fort,” he explained to Alex after a moment, “The Hall of the Vigilants has been attacked and the Dawnguard need all the help they can get. I know you don’t like it there, but you need to come with me or risk repercussions. If only Sapphira was here, then I could leave you without worry of being hunted down by a Devine.” A young woman stood on the path overlooking the scene, she could have been mistaken for a Breton if it wasn't for the fact that she had black fur on her hands and had the ears and tail of a fox. At the sound of her name her right ear twitched. “Did someone mention me?” she asked walking up behind Cian. He jumped a foot in the air and spun around while Alex collapsed because she was laughing so hard. “I told you not to sneak up on me Sapphira!” Cian growled at the girl and then sighed, “At least I can go now if you both think you can handle being on your own.” Cian said. After a nod from both Sapphira and Alex he mounted Umarithial and rode off towards Riften, and Dayspring Canyon.
Alex looked at Sapphira and smiled pulling herself off the ground, “So where are you headed,” she asked after a moment. “I was headed for Rorikstead to look at marks on the ground left by someone near the Shrine of Akatosh because strange symbols have appeared in the soil.” “Can I come along?” Alex asked, “I don’t see why not.” Sapphira replied. The two summoned there horses and headed off to Rorikstead and Sapphira took a quick look at the ground and made her report about it being some remnants of a portal and then the pair headed towards Whiterun and the devastation at the shrine of Talos.
Star nods after listening to what Zrika and Tenebrae have to say, then levitates down, standing up, and starts forming a sphere of crystalline sapphire energy infused with the elements of fire and electricity. The orbit of marbles keeps going, like an astrolabe in miniature.
" The shrine is likely to be very unpleasant right about now - that cheese has been in the sun for a while. Bruma.. alright, I can send you there. I'll pick you back up after I deal with the mess at the shrine, I should know which direction Eolhin went after going there. This is a stable gate I'm readying - nobody should be able to sense anything on the exit end, though it is slightly noticeable here, despite being contained. It'll leave you behind the cathedral, where you won't be likely to catch much attention. "
The sphere of crystalline elemental energy expands, becoming a ring in the air with a slight shimmer inside the ring of energy, roughly eight feet tall and hovering just off the ground.
" Take these, if there is some massive emergency, blow any tune on them - or just make a racket. They're enchanted to catch my attention from great distances, even from the other side of Tamriel. "
Star takes out a couple of crystal flutes from one of his pocket dimension portals, leaving them levitating in midair.
" I don't know why I never made any use of these before now, I just remembered making them a long time ago just so I had something to contact people with in case of an emergency. Too much clutter in the attic I guess... Bah. I'll close this portal behind you after you go through, I'm going to use a different method to get to the shrine of Talos. Just in case Mora's friends are looking for me here. "
Star turns his attention to the new portal, maintaining it and making sure no magical interference causes a problem.
Once Zrika and Tenebrae have gone through the portal and arrived in Bruma, Star shuts the portal behind them, retracting its leftover energies back into his body as he closes it. The mad solar orbit of marbles stops, and all of the marbles disappear into the hidden pocket in Star's outfit that they came from.
Star stands in place for a minute or so, thinking, then suddenly dematerializes into a grizzly bear sized nimbus of multicolored light, armor and all, which vanishes from the Shivering Isles, travelling through the barriers between the Oblivion Realms and Tamriel in the space of a few thousandths of a second. The nimbus reappears near one of the weaker spots in the barriers between Oblivion and Tamriel, about fifty feet away from the Sacellum of Boethiah, dimming to near invisible after the transit and becoming virtually undectectable as Star masks his presence. From there, it moves at near-lightspeed to the Shrine of Talos where the incident with cheese and vampires happened, hiding in the reflection of the sun in the pool. There is a rather interesting sight going on, the vampires have thawed out and left, and a couple of trolls are busy cleaning up the last big chunks of cheese mess and gelatin Cliff Racer. Star thinks to himself as he waits for them to finish, highly amused.
^ It seems as though nature decided to clean up most of the mess for me. And over there, a giant's footprint at the water's edge. It was mammoth cheese after all, it looks like the giant at Cradlecrush Rock came by and gathered a bulk amount of cheese, then when it became ripe from the sun, the trolls at Darkshade smelled it and came for the rest. I'll still have some to clean up once they are finished, but it won't nearly be as much as what was here before I left for the Isles. ^
While he waits for the trolls to finish off the last few large splatters of cheese, Star scans the area repeatedly, looking for the aftereffects of a lightspeed or even relativistic transit caused by a panicked Hooloovoo. After two hours, he finds it just as the trolls are shambling off. The last scattered third or fourth tier effects of a lightspeed energy transit, enough for him to use high-speed calculations to determine the general direction that Eolhin went. The general direction of Winterhold.
^ Judging from what I know about Eolhin, I'd bet a thousand Septims that she went for the Shrine of Azura near Mount Anthor. One of the safest places in Tamriel for her to go. Hopefully Azura has been helping her deal with her mental stress. She really needs that kind of help right now. I'll swing by there later, after I clean up what the giant and the trolls missed here. Have to remember to pick up Zrika and Tenebrea as well. Hm... the vampires have thawed. I may have made a miniscule time-error while transitioning between Oblivion and Tamriel. One extra day since Zrika and Tenebrea arrived in Bruma. Blast, should have used a portal myself instead of being paranoid and using direct travel, portals are more accurate. Fiddlesticks and dancing brooms, what an annoyance. Oh well, cleaning time. ^
A mist of gold light emanates from Star's position after the trolls are out of sight, causing the remaining mess to completely disappear. It simply melts away like snow in the dawn, as if it had never been there to begin with. During the cleaning spell, Star also rearranges anything that has been knocked around near the shrine, putting it in its proper place. He picks up on a dim aura of approval from the shrine itself, Talos has taken notice of the cleaning effort and is giving a moment of his time to acknowledge it while busy with whatever divine business he has at the moment, putting two and two together or maybe having tracked Star somehow all along.
Following the cleanup, Star heads to Bruma to pick Zrika and Tenebrae up, materializing back into physical form armor and all two feet away from thier current position after lightspeed travel.
Zrika was outside behind the temple at the time of Fallingstar's arrival. However she did not notice him or see him coming as she was occupied with a rather strange.. No perhaps annoying would be a better term to describe this person that had occupied Zrika's attention. "Cliffracer fl-" The dunmer began, though Zrika quickly interrupted. "-No, no. Don't.. Not again sir. Tenebrae is looking for it right now. so... Stop before I have to use a dremora to keep your mouth shut." The male dunmer who at this point would seem off his rocker nodded a bit drunkenly and instead started to hum. ~I suppose that's as good as we are going to get with this guy..~ Zrika shook her head and looked up to the roof of the temple. "Tenebrae! Did you find it? Is there really one flying?" She perked her ears to listen to Tenebrae's reply. But it was quiet. For a few moments before an annoyed growl came from the roof of the temple. "There is no Cliffracer here. I have no idea why this loon is singing.. And how the heck did he even get here anyway?"
Zrika narrowed her eyes and only smiled a little, though it was obviously forced. "He should still be in Chaydinhal... And yet he was able to get all the way here.. Skooma must be something for this.." A sigh came in reply from the roof and Zrika could only shrug at the dunmer. "Yeah. There are NO cliffracers here. Now.. Go home.. If you have one." The dunmer opened his mouth, and in fear that he would sing again, Zrika summoned a dremora and had it pick up the dunmer and run to the other side of town with him. Though as she realized that the dunmer might have actually wanted to speak her ears dropped. "Maybe that was a bit too.. Rude of me." with a small sigh, she turned around and jumped back, seeing Fallingstar right then. "Ah... How long were you..?" She began, then quickly shook her head. "Ah. Not what I should say. Anyway hey there Fallingstar! I'm guessing the shrine clean-up is done?" Her tail wagged about in a nervous fashion. She wanted to ask if something had happened for it to have taken so long. But.. Then that would have been too intrusive. In Zrika's mind anyway.
"Yo Fallingstar! What took you so long? A few vampires were wandering about or something?" Zrika again, jumped. Though since she jumped backward, she bumped into Tenebrae. Or rather that's where it came from anyway. " Do you have to jump at every little thing? Geeze..." A rather tall creature helped Zrika regain her footing and then waved at Fallingstar with his talons. Zrika looked a little annoyed, but she just gave a small smile and wagged her tail. "Would rather jump at everything then let anything get the jump on us." The creature gave Zrika a look with its four eyes then shook his head. "Ah.. Sure.." The creature shrugged and looked over to Fallingstar again. Since at this point it was obvious, this creature was Tenebrae. Like he was in Zrika's memory his fur was charcoal black and had features that resembled both a dragon and a wolf. His head was more dragon-like with a sharp beak-like shape for a muzzle/mouth. Needless to say, he had no wolf nose but he did have a few spikes lined on his snout. The ears on his head were straight and long. They were facing backward however, as though he was born with them that way. One was able to ell that Tenebrae had a thick coat, mostly from his neck, as the rest of his body was covered in something the resembled leather armor. But with no shine to it, save for the glass-like material that filled holes that were eye-shaped.
These glass-covered holes seemed to be all around the armor. Apparently it was for his many eyes. And boy, were there a lot of holes. More than 200 if someone took the time to count. The armor itself, was a pale black, so if Tenebrae was standing in a dark room, not many people would think he was wearing anything. Unless you shone a light on the glass-holes. His hand... Err.. Talons were not covered. As there was no need to do so. They were long but with a small flex of his talons, they seem to be able to shrink in size. The talons themselves were obsidian black. This no armored rule seemed to apply to his feet/paws/talons? As well. However, they looked more like paws than talons. From the angle Tenebrae was in one could also see his back spikes. Though the most note-able ones were the two slightly below his shoulder blades. Sure, he also had spikes on his elbows and shoulders, but the two here were slightly bigger, and they were curved slightly. If one looked closely you'd see that the spines are actually broken. As though something was ripped from them. Tenebrae's tail was long, and shaped similar to a dragon's with his bladed spade. Tenebrae crossed his arms, and from the glass holes, you could see that a few of his eyes had opened. "Umm.. Yeah before you ask. This is Tenebrae and this is my.. True form." Zrika gave Tenebrae an annyoed stare, then gave Fallingstar a concerned look. "Are you okay? want to rest a bit? The house is nearby and we have food and drinks.."
Give Feedback
A Place to continue RP threads (3473 comments)
I could translate that cool mod to german. But sadly only the text, because i have no voice actors in my home. xD
I can try it... if you allow it.
Then also all german players understand it without have the google translator always opened. xD
Respond to This One!
((I am going to do something called splitting the thread here people, as the load times for this page are getting ridiculous. What I intend to do is start a new OOC thread, and a new story thread under this forum, copy over the last few posts from the previous threads (much as I did when I set up the forum to begin with), and then use dummy thread posts to push the huge threads off to page two, where they won't impede reloading, but will be preserved for reference. So if you see this, and are wondering where the rest of the threads went, go to page two and on (well, for default setup, anyway, if you change your options under your profile enough, you may still see them, if you do and it is a problem, say something). ))
Posting is once again open.
I copied over more than usual of the story thread because with what is happening, it wouldn't make sense otherwise.
Eolhin, can you edit that into the carried over post? It goes right after this sentence in the first paragraph.
I'll edit it into the post on the previous page - thank goodness edits don't bump threads.
EDIT: Damn, it would have to go after the next sentence. This one
Edit: Morgana: Well, you didn't make any mention of that before, even in OOC, and you had that book to exchange, and Alex left purposefully to be away from the group for the conversation, so you can see where it would look like Alex summoned Mora, not the other way around.
@ Morgana : Okay, I think I understand all of that. Good idea with the situational kill immunity for your character, things get rather bonkers around the group. Star's wild card is he can't be killed unless he is in one place - all of him. If he separates into more than one form/body, he can't die. He'll just lose a lot of energy if one form is axed while another is still around.
EDIT: Currently, all of Star's essence is in one body - but when he's in one single form, he's considerably stronger than when divided. So.. Probably not going to have him do the multiple forms thing until the whole Mora mess dies down, unless I have to have him eject a new body out of his main form in order to escape from something. Like how a lizard loses its tail to get away from danger.
Not sure when my next post will come up - Star's alone at the moment. Got to think... probably going to have him check on New Sheoth after he's done recovering from his freak-out, he'll remember he left a portal there.
EDIT: ( Maniacal laugh ) Weird mood today... I'm more Star than myself thanks to the hot weather....
As for time, I have a stake in this one, as Mathias needs to gain distance from the group.4 hours = 4 hours, I say. Plus, Mathias could go through Daedric realms with naught but a headache when he was bound to Nirn. He'd been through New Sheoth.
Edit: Regarding death, Mathias also realistically can't die. Firstly, his age and immortality somewhat proves that he's not just going to keel over at any random moment, as his dragon blood protects him.
Second, if Mathias is very badly wounded, he has a natural trump card in the form of Vulthuryol. Don't ask how he'd summon the Dragon of the Deep, but he has the ability.
And third, if someone actually did kill Mathias' mortal form, they'd have a very annoyed and well armed spirit to deal with, who would very happily destroy his attacker's body to rebuild his form. Think of it as a form of very violent and destructive post-mortem restoration, except without being true necromancy. (is it considered Necromancy if you're raising yourself from the dead to continue actually living, rather than just reanimating the dead? Mathias does return to the living realm after a death, but he comes back incredibly weakened.)
EDIT: Oookayy... where exactly did those extra abilities come from? You never mentioned them before Madrias.
Not really extra abilities, but extensions of things he already has to do.
As for calling Vulthuryol, Mathias knows blood magic and can summon a dragon through a portal, if need be. Vulthuryol would already know Mathias is in danger: they share life-blood, and by extension, Mathias and Vulthuryol are partly one-and-the-same.
After all, I mentioned in OOC the last time that Mathias didn't hear Talos, he heard Vulthuryol.
Alex and Cian, I don't know how long it will take for Star to look for them yet ( As I don't yet know whether they use Star's portal to the Mania side of New Sheoth yet ) , and after likely running into Zrika and Tenebrae in New Sheoth, Star will be primarily worried about Eolhin, who got startled into a total panic when crap ... or rather cheese... hit the fan.
That's the basic framework for my part in the story at the moment. Nothing solid yet.
After all, what was supposed to happen at that camp, from my side of the story, was that Mathias would mention his regret of what he did to Eolhin, we'd have a peaceful awakening of the camp, get back on the way to Riften, and on the way, somehow resolve the issues between Mathias and Eolhin. (obviously, I didn't try to flesh that out, as I don't know how Eolhin, or her character, think)
I had this plan written up (the split from the group) to allow him to cool down rather than sitting there and fuming about it until he blew up at someone like he did the last time he was pushed to his limits (when he unloaded his memories on Eolhin.) As mentioned, Mathias is heading to Solitude. He's also going to find a few surprises along the way.
Edit: As no one plans to chase down Mathias, I'll run as a separate concurrent timeline. Four hours doesn't need to equal four hours. Just that Mathias needs four hours of Nirn's time to calm his mind enough to realize Star didn't outright attack him, it was more a big, messy prank. At the same time, he'll somewhat figure Eolhin snapped because Star flipped out.
Star, they didn't go through the portal. so whenever Star gets back to Mundus Alex will be ok enough to speak again.
Mathias, After that time Alex is going to try and contact Mathias in some way to try and explain what happened with Mora, and subsequently what would have happened had she not asked Sanguine to scan the document.
( No offense Morgana, any huge issue from anyone would have set Star off at this point. If anyone else wrote in something attacking instead of you, Star's reaction would be very similar to what happened with the vampires. )
So... Right now, Star's taking a nap in a flaming crater while his mind reboots after said nervous breakdown.
Star stress chart ( the most severe instances ) ... Fighting Mora to get back Eolhin's knowledge and energy-------> Molag Bal incident----------> Fus Ro Dah Godwave ( Was almost completely recovered from this and doesn't really hold it against Mathias )---------> The whole incident with Mathias getting time-distorted after Cian contacted Alex -----> Dealing with Akatosh showing up following Star's dark Word -----------> Mentally assaulted by Mathias near Silent Moons Camp ( He barged into Star's mind, top-level . Counts as an assault/mental trespass in my book, although not a ... rank 5 of 5 one, more like a 2 of 5. ) --------> Having to move the camp after Silent Moons incident ---------------> Nightgate Inn trouble with Mathias's nightmare----------> The scene where Star loses it after "hearing" what Eolhin got blasted with ( Remember he had to go off planet to vent from that) ------------------->Mora issue at Revakheim ------------>Starting to realize that Eolhin is a lot worse off from the Nightgate Inn that Star originally thought---------------> Vampire mess.
Soo..... no wonder Star flipped his lid. Probably be more than that in the "severe" category, I was trying not to make a huge text wall by only writing the most absolutely key events that were stressing Star out. I likely missed something important ( or several somethings ) That is one FRELL of a bad week. Not that nobody else has been stressed ( Pretty much everyone has ). This is just Star's reasons for freaking the fell out and having a nervous breakdown.
"{I told Mora not to interfere in your life again. Asking you to get the book for him I can understand, but then coming to get it himself and then giving you a trapped scroll I cannot. I’m going to teach him a lesson he won’t soon forget!}"
She in fact tried to shield her mind against him, though not successfully.
EDIT: And then rebuilding the merged patch and the bashed patch and my SkyProc patches... UGH. Me and my 220+ Load order.
Are you working on your character's reactions to the huge mess Morgana? Even if they stepped out past the edge of the camp, it isn't like they could miss all of that. Star dropped a cheese-bomb almost on top of them, and then some of the cliff racers probably bounced. Not to mention the sounds.
( Can't see how Alex or Cian wouldn't get affected by a 30+ pound cheese bomb splattering everywhere. )
The one that landed by them made
Mathias can go from our camp by the Shrine of Talos to Solitude in 24 hours. With camping stops along the way, at that, even being the bare minimum of "get off my feet, lay down, rest, and recover a bit."
I have no problem putting up things in a split post version so you can get to him and speak with him, but his first four hour time-stop is going to be the Bannered Mare, in Whiterun.
Edit: Eolhin, to quote from Madrias's post [You are more dangerous to the group because you willingly summoned Hermaeus Mora to our doorstep!] I was referring to the fact that Mathias sees her as more dangerous then he is.
EDIT: Um.. Morgana, considering the Aetherium amulet that Mathias is wearing, don't you think it's a little odd for Alex to be able to track him with a crystal ball? That amulet blocks practically all magical detection. ( Star enchanted it to hide Mathias from Hermaeus Mora, remember )
That's the only thing I saw that was totally out of place.
That last bit
You're right Madrias, Star could likely use that to track Mathias . It makes perfect sense. It would be a difficult method of tracking, but useable. One that required a lot of concentration. ( the amulet bit, the werewolf bit just requires Star to be within so many hundreds of feet )
EDIT: Tracking down Mathias is a bit low on Star's current priorities list though. Star still has to check on where his portal was ( after he recovers from total nervous breakdown ) and track down a very shell-shocked Hooloovoo ( after running into Zrika and Tenebrae in New Sheoth. It's actually probably better to have Star just cross paths randomly... sometime in the more distant future of the story after the whole mess that just happened has been resolved.
Edit: He's calmed down by the time she contacts him, by the way. (I'm assuming, if I read your post right, Morgana, that you've time-skipped four hours.) The way I got through with him looking upset is simple: being called like that is a little unpleasant. Hence why he thinks the call is important enough to respond to immediately.
Oh, and if Alex could manage it, this would be a good time to bring Cian along, especially if he can help shield Alex's mind from the Daedra, as well as the fact that Mathias doesn't fully trust him because he doesn't know him yet. He knows basically two things about him (and mind, this is from a character perspective, not mine): He's Alex's twin brother, and that he's not a fighter.
Edit: just read your post and I can have Cian meet Alex and Mathias at the entrance of Whiterun if I can figure out how to get him there.
As for how he'd find out, Cian's managed to talk telepathically to Alex before at great range. He should certainly be able to contact her without startling Mathias too badly.
Star, I understand. Your story runs along the same line as mine, where it interferes with no one other than those who are involved.
Star: I understand.
After all, Cian needs to reach Alex, Mathias, and Panzer for one line to keep going. They'll make it to Solitude, where Mathias clears his name and returns to the world without the fear of being hunted. After that, I don't fully know.
Star's still in the Shivering Isles, needing to find his way to where his portal came through at.
Zrika and Tenebrae are also in the Shivering Isles and in likely need of a rescue.
Eolhin's vanished, and no one knows where or when she is.
The result? I can go doze off without risk of slowing the plot. The only 'time sensitive' thing is my timeline that I'm sharing with Morgana's two characters, and it can run smoothly enough if I take a night's worth of rest.
Star himself can always make another portal to where he wants to go. Same for helping Zrika and Tenebrae.
As for Eolhin, Star will eventually go looking for her, he is the only one capable of sensing life energy well enough to do so. Just in case it wasn't already obvious, after being startled that badly following dealing with memory issues, Eolhin will likely split clean out of Nirn's universe if she sees Mathias.
Just wanted to put this up for future clarifications, I'm not going to leave Zrika and Tenebrae stranded. Or have my character abandon Eolhin.
@ Zrika : I left the end a bit vague on details so you can have Star meet up with your characters wherever you want. Just in case you had anything halfway written up.
Madrias: The contract I mentioned is something I made up to go along with the memory Alex had a while back. The basics of it is that Alex is sworn to protect Ahgrohikkvith and, when he ended himself so that she could be remade, the contract lay dormant until she met Mathias where the contract grafted to him so she is now sworn to protect him.
@ Zrika : I'll try to get a post together sometime tomorrow.
As for his reaction, it'll be a bit of a shock to him. Not enough to set him off, but he's going to be a bit worried that a Dragon Priest is bound, again, to protecting a dragon. More worried that Alex is bound to him.
Madrias: ti give you an example of the command thing, during there time in Solitude Alex is going to follow Mathias around and listen to commands aimed a her to not cause any backlash on Mathias.
EDIT: And goodnight - this was my last checking in for the night. See all of you tomorrow.
( Leaves a plate of a couple dozen sweetrolls sitting around )
As for why Mathias hasn't found a way to send word to Star, he honestly hasn't thought of that yet. It's not like he has a lack of methods. His Dwemer scrying dish works on thought alone, it just happened to be convenient to call Alex by her title to get her attention. He could have Dagon drop a Dremora in the Shivering Isles with a note, or he could outright talk with one of the Mazken about rumors.
After all, Star being in the Shivering Isles is certain to raise a ruckus among the Seducers. That whole Mania vs. Dementia thing, after all, is what somewhat led to events previously referenced. Hence the Aureal reacting to Mathias: That little swamp Mathias conjured up in New Sheoth got blamed on them for not protecting the city. It's why Mathias hasn't done the whole "make a portal to the Shivering Isles and head through" trick. He's uncertain as to whether Sheogorath would tolerate his presence as he was, at the time, a bit of a troublemaker. After all, a swamp in the middle of Sheogorath's city probably took a good bit of time to clean up. While I'm sure Mathias hasn't angered Sheogorath, Mathias doesn't exactly know whether or not Sheo's upset with him or not.
Star isn't expecting a message from Mathias at the moment - the way I'm writing it, Star is giving Mathias time to cool down from getting covered in mammoth cheese. Star may be bonkers, but he knows that it's better to let things simmer down after something like that rather than try to communicate right away. At this point, my character would likely react badly to Mathias just showing up through a portal - it hasn't been that long for him, he'd assume Mathias was showing up to get back at him for the whole cheesing the robes situation. Badly as in teleporting out with a dropped watermelon heading for Mathias's feet ( One possible reaction ) not badly as in rain of fire.
Priority one at the moment for Star is getting Zrika and Tenebrae to where they want to go safely, then he has to find Eolhin, and has a rather defiled shrine to clean up so Talos doesn't get angry.
As for the where of Star meeting up with anyone else - Probably Echo Deep Mine or Faalskar at the latest... just not sure, I'll have to see how the story goes from here.
EDIT: And as for the how, Star has... endless means of transportation, I just have to think of something that doesn't send up a magic flare. Would'nt want to let all of Tamriel know where Mathias is by Star just ripping holes in reality or using a flashy runic teleport. Or any other highly detectable method. Probably just going to have Star fly in from a distance, beam down a telepathic message that he's coming in, and land without causing a ruckus. This is planning far in advance - I probably need a minimum of four posts just to find Eolhin, get Zrika and Tenebrae where they need to go, and clean up the Shrine of Talos.
More than likely, someone will see the symbol, compare it with some form of historical references, and see it as an ill omen of times to come.
And no, I'm not too concerned about Mora trying to trace that portal.
It has come to my attention that I may not have made it sufficiently clear what my future plans were and why, so let me try again. I am sorry, but dealing with your character (Mathius), your style of RP, insisting the story go where you want it to, in large part ignoring what others do, and what your character did to my Hooloovoo, has caused me considerable stress. I have fibromyalgia. Stress is like poison to me. Due to dealing with the stress of this RP, in combination with a number of things happening in real life right now, I now have an ulcer, and am in a lot of pain from the fibromyalgia. I can’t eliminate several of the RL stresses I am under, but I can eliminate dealing with the RP stress. And so I am.
Let us call it irreconcilable differences in style and goals in RP.I will write enough posts replying to Star to properly explain my orb’s absence, and write her out of the story long term, or only have her interact with Star, Zrika, and Tenebrae. In short, my Hooloovoo is not returning to the ‘group’, and I am not having her interact with Mathias ever again. You are free to recruit more writers, if you feel you don’t have enough characters in your group to carry on with. I will continue to split the thread for now, at least until someone else wants to take over doing it. Have fun.
However, I am not out of this just yet. Mathias was a character who is fun to play in game, but not to roleplay as, and as Eolhin pointed out, not fun to be with. He represents the darkest side of me, without the light to balance it.
I have a character who is much more... tolerable. Luke, from New Vegas. A robot with a personality. He's always been designed, in game, to be a fun-loving-and-occasionally-witty character, who usually takes a bad day and finds the good in it.
And yes, I have his arrival planned out, though it will have to wait until those who intend to travel together return to the same location. He's also not carrying a quest, like Mathias had been (and yes, Mathias' quest is done. His main goal was going to be getting to Solitude to deal with those hunting him. When the group split, I saw an opportunity to write off a character I really wasn't enjoying anymore.)
As for how Luke gets to Skyrim, it involves a misadventure with portals.
Edit: and for the telepaths in the group, Luke does have a mind, or at least enough of one that can be read from, though trying to get through his usual mental clutter to speak with him might be difficult. He's multi-threaded, even in thought.
The Matera, also called the Howling, are a rare race of humans that resemble Breton’s, but for the fact that they have the ears and tail of a fox which were gifts from the Daedric Prince Hircine. They made a home for themselves in the Dwemer city of Blackreach sometime after the Dwemer disappeared in 1E 700, only to be driven out in 2E 578 by the Falmer.
Sapphira’s backstory is that she was born on the 13th of Suns Dusk in the year 2E 568, so 10 years before the Matera were driven from Blackreach. She was rescued by Alex and Cian on one of their trips to the ancient city and was raised by the clan until 2E 588 when she struck out on her own and Hircine chose to unlock her Lycanthropic abilities and made her a Howling. She was called upon by Alex to help her during the Oblivion Crisis and hasn't seen her friend since. She is now in Skyrim because she was contracted by the Dominion to make sure Queen Ayrenn got to Solitude safely and is now on her way to Rorikstead, at the behest of Emperor Titus Mede II, to try and figure out what happened there and she will bring Alex with her.
As for Luke, he's, well, a bit of an adventurer from the Mojave Wasteland. And it's just like him to find a portal in the wasteland while fleeing from a gunfight he really wanted no part in, decide "Anything's better than this mess." and recklessly throw himself through it without checking where it was going to, or the fact that it was a one-use portal, or even if it was at a safe altitude.
Obviously he survives, but he runs across the trail of where our group once traveled, stumbles into a certain dungeon that a certain cranky Vaalsark used as a spell testing zone, and, well, that's about as far as I've gotten with the preliminary outline for Luke.
As for his abilities... He's very limited comparatively. He's good with flight, he's tougher than he looks, and his vision is, well, state-of-the-art. Well, that, and he never needs to sleep. His major downsides... What little currency he has is worthless, and he's terrified of water. Not that he'd short out in water, but he's had bad experiences with it.
But he's supposed to be a much lighter character than Mathias (who, let's face it, is a very dark and evil character trying to become good), and a character on the other side of the fence: He's not going to get any better with his skills, and most of his former knowledge is now useless.
One skill he still has that will be useful is his ability to pick locks. If we're ever up against a door that can't be opened by one of the group, let Luke take a crack at the lock, and unless it needs a key, he'll probably pick his way through it without snapping lockpicks.
Madrias: Alex is going to be in for it when Luke shows up as Sapphira knows that Alex will leave one way rifts open in the strangest locations, in fact you can use the fact that he follows the renascence of the portal caster to find Alex and the others. just an idea I came up with.
And the trying not to spoil things is mostly because I really don't have a whole lot written up on Luke, other than that his arrival will certainly have the attention of most of Skyrim, at least for a moment.
I've been really busy - hoping to have my character do something tonight, but no promises.
Minor mental derailment is all, need to alter my plans now that Mathias is leaving the story, and Cian is on what I'm reading as permanent hiatus until the Dawnguard factor into the RP.
My immediate plans are the same as before - Get Zrika and Tenebrae safely out of New Sheoth, then clean up the Shrine to Talos and track down Eolhin.
Will keep everyone updated - assuming that something doesn't pour ten tons of busy into my week again.
TL ; DR : I don't have a way to add another character at the moment, so Star is going to be my only character for a while. Likely a LONG while.
Star is ... Complicated, so I won't be likely to bring any new characters in anytime soon. I've got my hands full with keeping a ancient survivor of a dead universe consistent personality and history wise, so bringing in any of my other half-formed ideas to light now would hurt Star's character/personality, as well as whatever new character I could bring in. So for the time being, Star is going to be my only character - his scattered race ( What little is left ) is in hidey-holes or other odd locations all over the countless possible universes in fictional reality - so the biggest trouble would be a conceivable way for one of them to bump into Star.
After all, I went until the 7th before I made my last post as Mathias. I had to calm down so that I could think rationally as Mathias (well, as rationally as he does), get him into Solitude, deal with the pardon letter, and get him out of sight, out of mind.
As for my new character, Luke, he's roughly based on this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/43732/? though with quite a few personal modifications. Like stowaway wings that allow him to glide (and a plasma thruster for powered flight), and an ability to hide his main weapon (a heavy freaking pipe wrench) inside his leg. And he's a character who tends to favor being an optimist versus a realist or pessimist. After all, he escaped his own destruction 13 times by the time he arrives in Skyrim. And it's probably a good thing none of us has a deck of cards, because his one biggest problem is gambling.
As for his height compared to the rest, just a little under 6 feet tall. And if we're going to talk age, he undeniably takes the "youngest member of the group" award at just over four years of operational service.
Mathias, is Luke a complete robot or is he more of a Cyborg?
@ Zrika : Okay, I'll think of what exactly I'm going to post in regards to the portal.
@ Everyone : I'll probably have my post up sometime this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Bit of a busy day today.
Luke's arrival is... well, destructive. You know that house that is always destroyed near the Western Watchtower? Luke's the one who destroys it this time, with a complete accident. The only lore I applied to that house is that it's long since been abandoned. Whether it was the home of a former Talos worshipper, an unlucky farmer eaten by a dragon, or just someone who packed up and moved back to Cyrodiil, the house has been empty for quite a while before Luke came along and ruined it.
Luke isn't necessarily a pacifist character (He's walked the Mojave Wasteland, after all), but he doesn't like fighting if he can avoid it. He's also going to arrive in Skyrim with nothing. I decided that giving him the wrench really wasn't going to help anything. Being that he's an optimist (or at least, as close to one as I can manage), he'll see it as an opportunity.
Either way, whether Luke meets the group as a whole or meets the group in parts, his arrival will be about the same way. Whiterun is the place I picked for his crash landing for many reasons. One, that perfectly placed abandoned house is a great place to have a destructive crash landing without ruining some poor NPC's life. Two, Whiterun is central to everywhere, which means that after landing, Luke can set out in any random direction. Finally, three, Luke can make a quick run to get some basic provisions from a number of close-by ruins or bandit camps.
And with that mentioned, I'm going to bed before I fall asleep and drool into my keyboard.
Madrias: That would actually work, Sapphira is going to have an earache though. Sapphira has a device on her head that is a combination Dwemer Scouter and listening device for Dwemer Animunculi, which the listening device part is still in her ears and it tends to magnify the sound of explosions so that will certainly get her attention. If you want to do that I'm all for it. The Scouter is hidden in the band of the device until needed and then swings down in front of the eye when it is being used.
@ Zrika : Star might give someone a fright or might not, depending on where your characters are and how they notice his appearance. Just materialized him out of nowhere in the story from the perspective of anyone looking at where he " pops in " after all. LOL.
@ Morgana : I have a bit of a " mental head-full " of stuff for Star to do, so I'll give you an opportunity to catch up with him later. It was just a bit much to visualize a scene of him meeting them right way at the Shrine of Talos on top of everything else on his plate. I'm thinking after Star visits the Shrine of Azura to catch up with Eolhin's Hooloovoo would be a decent time . Sometime after her response to that, so after one or two more of my posts, and Eolhin's post reacting to Star, Tenebrae, and Zrika showing up looking for her.
@ Madrias : I have... a LOT to visualize at the moment, so I'm thinking that Star is going to be too busy to notice an exploding house if that happens while he's in Bruma or tracking down Eolhin. I couldn't even rationalize a way for Alex and Sapphira to meet Star at the Shrine of Talos without my brain throwing sparks everywhere. So you don't have to hurry on anything due to me, I wouldn't be able to react to it right away anyway.
I'm not really in any hurry, just was curious what everyone wanted to do.
You have to remember, the Hooloovoo was on thin sanity ice already before Star's massive cheese freakout became the straw that broke the camel's back and made her leave the group in complete panic.
I'm just a little visually swamped at the moment mentally regarding my character's part in the RP. I want to get his current urgent business out of the way before any complete or partial group reuniting. ( Well, partial partial or partial complete. It would be Luke that Star sees rather than Mathias. )
So, just wanting to get my current stuff done before adding anything new.
Timeline, this should be at least two full days after the incident at the shrine, so Star getting to Bruma to pick up Tenebrea and Zrika in my last RP post would happen during the time frame that Mathias is retiring to Proudspire Manor. The arrival at the shrine should be right after ( ? ) the portal to Solitude. I kind of lost track, but I think that that is right.
Of course, I'll keep working through it, see if I can get to some point that I'm not breaking the three page mark in his arrival, keep condensing as needed, and take this out of rough draft and make it a post. For now, I'm straining because I keep forgetting that most people have more visual-based memory than I do, which slows me down because I'm uncertain how much detail to write in.
Everyone: My next post is ready but just a heads up on an non lore friendly addition to my group. He is a Dwemer Sphere named Dorn and he can talk. In my post he talks and I give a back story for him that I think makes sense. A Dwemer Engineer that escaped the journey of the Dwemer because he was wandering around Oblivion, not the same Dwemer from Morrowind, helped Sapphira save her friend, Dornveil Sagehollow, from the Soul Carin and was able to augment the body of a Dwemer Sphere to allow Dorn's soul to control it as if it was his own body. If that is alright with everyone I will keep it in my post if not I will remove it.
I suppose the biggest thing is that I'm unsure how much detail to go into regarding what Luke looks like. Also the fact that in a world of dragons and magic, strange powers and living gods, Luke's inability to cast is a bit of a disadvantage, though I may have a way to counter that, and for it to be costly enough that Luke can't rely on it for more than an emergency. Sure, Luke comes from a world of laser guns, bullets, and weapons that would be considerably deadly in the Skyrim universe, but he doesn't get to bring any along. I don't want him to be that powerful, not without significant cost. He has a significant advantage in that his body is constructed of titanium, which, to be fair, I've placed mentally around Ebony regarding the Skyrim armor scaling. Essentially he won't be afraid of low-level beings for the most part, as his base armor is sturdy enough to turn arrows away without much risk of harm. The big weaknesses are that he's deathly afraid of water, and that he has a huge weakness to shock magic. He's not at risk of shorting out in water, but anyone who's played the Fallout games knows danger lurks in water. Something significant that he brings to the group is that he's highly resourceful. His strategy would be more along the line of an archer (something he could learn easily, as it's all angles, distances, and calculations to make things line up) than a warrior.
And I've done it again, brainstorming in the OOC thread. New characters are hard, even when they're based on one you play in Fallout New Vegas.
Respond to This One!
((I am going to do something called splitting the thread here people, as the load times for this page are getting ridiculous. What I intend to do is start a new OOC thread, and a new story thread under this forum, copy over the last few posts from the previous threads (much as I did when I set up the forum to begin with), and then use dummy thread posts to push the huge threads off to page two, where they won't impede reloading, but will be preserved for reference. So if you see this, and are wondering where the rest of the threads went, go to page two and on (well, for default setup, anyway, if you change your options under your profile enough, you may still see them, if you do and it is a problem, say something). ))
Star stands, laughing at the sky, as everyone is coming back, a soft, mad laugh. A few seconds after Mathias growls at Alex after dealing with the vampire threat, Star abruptly stops laughing, about the same time that Mathias is looking over at him. Star has picked up on the negative emotion, too stressed to keep his sensory capabilities muffled. Star turns an odd, ruddy color before abruptly letting out a mad, shrieking cackle that is loud enough to wake the dead as several small objects made of yellow and green crystal materialize at his feet. One is a miniature Talos statue, one is in the shape of a book, and there are several small crystals in the rough shape of various creatures from the Shivering Isles, including a Gnarl and an Elytra. As the shrieking cackle begins, Star unravels the master weave on the group communication channel on an impulse, causing the channel to slowly fade out over the next half minute as his nervous breakdown begins in earnest. Following the mad laugh and small conceptual accident, Star barks out a stream of venting and nonsense, finally having stressed out to the point of a total temporary nervous breakdown.
" Sour-lime mood Cliff racers ! Stupid and a Stupid COW ! Mammoth crap in a hat ! The closest port is fair Oblivion! Crassius eating limes on a Cliff Racer's back! "
There is more than this mixed in, colorful, nonsensical swearing in several languages. The rant goes on for half a minute straight, utter nonsense and profanity mixed together in a rapid, garbled stream, before Star targets the closest recent sources of dark angry emotion while cackling like a lunatic and slapping the ground. He opens a pocket dimension that dumps over thirty pounds of warm, smelly, slightly moldy runny mammoth cheese all over Mathias with no warning, doing the same to the closest vampires to the camp, the ones with their heads sticking out of ice. Another pocket dimension drops a blob of cheese near Alex and Cian, making a spattering, chaotic mess. All of the cheese-bombs go off at the same time - pure chaos. Star's eyes are bugging out by this point, and he shrieks out another deranged cackle before opening a portal in thin air at his side ( and size ) , between him and where Zrika and Tenebrae are. It is a portal to Mania in the Shivering Isles, opening just inside the main gate of New Sheoth on the north side. Star bolts through screaming obscenities and nonsense, forgetting to close the six-foot high, three-and-a half foot wide portal that hovers in midair, and scaring the living daylights out of several Golden Saints as he takes to the air once on the other side. The portal is slightly unstable, enlarging it would likely result in it collapsing. It hovers in the air, and will stay there for about three minutes before dissipating from lack of energy supply. It also is made chaotically, any energy other than Star's fueling it will make it go haywire, although as a butterfly proves soon after Star passes through, using it for travel is safe until it fades. The butterfly just keeps going, flying from Tamriel to the Shivering Isles as thought it was passing through an open window.
On the other side, Star flies about randomly, laughing like a lunatic for a minute before taking off looking for something worth blowing up away from all the confusing life signatures that he is sensing in his deranged, hypersensitive state. He ends up dropping a rain of fire on an abandoned ruin a hundred miles away from a previous Greymarch, finishing off by dropping a huge, white-hot fireball on it. After his massive flip out and fireball venting, Star falls over sideways following landing in the flaming crater, snoring as he hits the ground. He will wake up in about four hours, after his mind has had time to reboot after his nervous breakdown.
Startle/shock/fear! The orb’s train of thought entirely derailed at Star's fit, picking up random bits of thoughts and words from those around her and adding them together with the force of panic and a full energy charge behind them. ^Lime-distortion-fear-cliff-racer-danger…^ Her blotchy blue-grey orb flared momentarily with a tint of green to it and there was a loud “OoOeeeUouoo!!” Then exactly 42 life sized, fully detailed, cliff racers made entirely of extra stiff and wobbly lime gelatin, in the characteristic transparent vivid green color, appeared between 15 and 42 feet up in the air and rained down over the campsite, predominantly focused just over Mathias. The split second after this massive conceptual accident, the Hooloovoo was invisible and gone at the speed of light, nowhere to be seen, before the racers had even finished flopping down in a huge heap on Mathias.
“You made the damned choice to summon Hermaeus Mora, you damned fool!” Mathias snarled to Alex. “You made that choice! You summoned an enemy, specifically everyone's mortal enemy, just outside of Revakheim! Worse than that, Alex, you accepted a scroll from him without thinking that it could easily be one of Mora's bloody traps! Had Sanguine not intervened, WE WOULD ALL BE DEAD! You included!” he snapped, striking the ground with his staff, causing a violent flare of light to surround him. “Or did you not think that Mora would like to kill you off too, to preserve the secrets of the Noiral for himself? I'm not mad about Molag Bal. I understand you had to make a choice, to become a Vampire or to die horribly. I've had my share of bad choices, some more recent than others, and I regret each one.” he said, growling.
“I willingly accept that I'm dangerous to the group because I don't know what I'm capable of. You are more dangerous to the group because you willingly summoned Hermaeus Mora to our doorstep! You made a deal with him that is not worth the mud on my paws! You nearly killed everyone.”
“As I said, I have made my share of bad choices. That is why I walk my Path of Peace. I have my share of regrets, the deepest of which right now is what I did to Eolhin in a fit of rage. If I could reverse time and undo that, I would, but I can't.” Mathias said, his voice calming to normal. “I went through the same memories I forced on her, I felt the pain as well. Even before that, I regretted it. For a being with no physical form, the feeling of pain must be a fearful experience.” he said, though it would be barely heard over Star's ranting in mixed languages.
He looked to the group, his mind racing with thoughts left unguarded. ^Perhaps I should travel separately, so that I can learn what I am capable of without harming everyone. I have my own ship. I can get to Falskaar later, after the others. Surely Eolhin or Star could open that portal without needing my expertise. Perhaps that would be the wisest move.^ he thought. His fur was pure white by now, his winter fur fully grown in.
Right about that time, Star's insanity reached a peak, and Mathias found himself covered in molten, moldy mammoth cheese. Not moments after that, he was hit with green, bursting cliff racers. His eyes flashed orange for a split second, before he spoke in a voice as powerful as the Thu'um, though it was only mortal words, “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!”
His spirit flared violently, making him wince as a seam of light split his right cheek, drawing blood, his reserves unchecked. Mathias was wild, set off by a combination of events. “Find your own damn way to Falskaar!” he yelled, before storming off southbound toward the road. An unlucky traveler happened to cross his path, and Mathias caught him up in a severe gust of wind, knocking him down. “Get out of my way.” he snarled.
Tenebrae listened to Mathias as he spoke. The big cat nodded in agreement when it was mentioned about making bad choices and regretting it. Then when Fallingstar started to laugh. Insanity at it's peak, it became obvious that Fallingstar had truly went insane. ~Ah... tiivz.. Not good.~ Tenebrae saw Zrika wake up at the sudden outburst of laughing and she gave Fallingstar a worried look. Though after the cheese.. Her face was painted with pure shock.
"What in the world..?" Zrika muttered and stared as after Fallingstar left in his portal, as Eolhin seemed to have a similar mental breakdown. Zrika saw Tenebrae's eyes go wide at the gelatin attack. "Tenebrae what in the world..?" Zrika meekly asked. "There was... Alex gave us a warning about a vampire attack. We fought the vampires.. Now this. I can't even.." Zrika was shocked the big cat was speechless for one.
Once Mathias yelled and went off his own way, both Zrika and Tenebrae were at a loss. Zirak looked around, and spotted the black and white book. She picked it up, worried to lose it in such a place and decided to take a look at the battle field. Frozen vampires were still spitting about curses, there was flaming cabbages about with sea... Wait Seaweed? All over dead vampires. Zrika had to step back. This confused her, the whole mess confused her. Closing her eyes she shook her head to clear it, but instead was greeted by an image. Of a vampire.. Opening her eyes quickly, she made a screeching sound and ran through Fallingstar's portal in a fit of fear. Tenebrae, stunned
followed after her.
Once she was through, she was greeted by two Golden Saints who apparently were inspecting the portal Fallingstar had made. They were surprised by her sudden appearance and even more surprised when Tenebrae came through. One of them muttered a question about Mora. And The big cat seemed to hear it. Because he growled. "Call me Mora or dare lay a hand on us and I'll make you into puree-saint with lime flavor.." the two golden saints backed away quickly and Zrika blotted off somewhere. With Tenebrae running after her.
Fjalar the Forgemaster said and he reacted to. "KulDoVulthuryol where are you show me" the crystal became foggy and as the fog cleared she saw him, but decided to leave her explanation for now and catch up with him, literally, later as he seemed to still be pissed.
“Go, before I send you and your cart flying into the river.” Mathias growled. Unsurprisingly, the travelers disappeared, not wanting to take a chance, not when a rather angry-looking mage, covered in cheese and green goop, threatens to send everyone flying into the cold water. Mathias used one of his spare cleaning crystals, getting cleaned up before continuing onward. He made it across the bridge before a searing pain hit, and more flares of light cut through his skin. He grimaced and fell, unable to hold his balance. He looked back to where the camp was, bared his teeth, and formed a large wall of solid ice across the bridge, burning off just barely enough energy to stop it from trying to kill him.
Mathias healed his wounds, heading down the road to the junction. He stopped and looked at it for a moment, as if making his decision. ^If I go right, I'll head toward Whiterun. From there, I can make it to Solitude. If I go left, I'll eventually end up at Windhelm, or Riften. While I'm displeased about the situation, I see no reason to go to Riften and unlock that portal if there's a chance I can't hold it open. There's no reason to go there at all for me right now. Solitude it is.^ he thought, before turning right on the road.
He picked up his pace, not outright sprinting for his life, but a hurried run, wanting to put distance between himself and the others. ^Eolhin vanished, but more than likely, she's not going to bother me. Star, for all I care, can fall in the swamp of New Sheoth. Zrika and Tenebrae got caught up in the backlash, unfortunately, and hopefully they can find their own way. Alex and Cian can comfort each other in the knowledge that one of them likes summoning Daedra who like to kill everyone.^ Mathias was so much in thought that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, exactly, and ran right into a courier. The man fell with a heavy grunt, but still gave his usual speech, though he was now laying on the ground.
“I've been looking for you. Got something to deliver. Looks like... You really do have friends in high places. A letter from Queen Ayrenn of Alinor! Well, I have to get going, got a lot of letters to deliver.”
Mathias looked at the letter curiously, as if he didn't trust it. He walked onward, making camp just off the path to Hillgrund's Tomb. He threw up a small leather tent, brought his staff in for light, and opened the letter.
“Va'Kaar Mathias Valdaan, I send this letter by courier, rather than twenty Justiciars, in the hopes that you will have spared his life. I seek to settle this standing war we have between yourself and the Aldmeri Dominion. You may have started the fight, but you have shown you would finish it, too, by how aggressive your tactics are. Not just do you fight with a blade, you have picked up a surprising use of magic, in particular, ice spells. I have been requested by my people to offer you a pardon letter, erasing your crimes against the Dominion, and against me, as well as to extend an offer of a peace treaty between the two of us, not as empires, nor as rulers, but as people. I will be in Solitude shortly after you receive this letter, should you wish to discuss a change in terms of the treaty.”
Mathias stopped reading for a moment, setting the letter aside in order to look at what else was there in the sealed package. He looked over the peace treaty, noticing that it seemed rather fair. He would pay the 3,000 gold originally owed for the cost of two dresses, and she would stop sending attack parties out to find him. He then looked over the pardon letter, and found it to be much the same way, that his bounty had been nullified and he was no longer a target of the Aldmeri Dominion. The letter had been signed by Queen Ayrenn, and the pardon, and the treaty had been signed by Queen Ayrenn and Titus Mede II, making them binding and legal documents between separate empires. Mathias signed his name to the pages, where appropriate, then counted out the 3,000 gold needed to satisfy the terms of the treaty.
^Star may still hate the Thalmor, and to an extent, so do I, but at least now, I'm not who they're trying to kill. Let Star deal with the fact that I'm no longer dragging the Thalmor in my direction. I will still fight my war, but I will do so at a later time, when I am more ready for it.^ he thought. He packed his letters away, the small coin-purse worth of gold, packed up his camp, and headed toward the Valtheim Towers.
The bandits at the towers were relentless, insisting on demanding payment from him. Mathias gave a feral grin and started to summon his storm, heavy black clouds forming over the towers. A heavy rain fell, though no ice, nor wind, nor lightning came from it. It would be nothing more than a rainstorm that would last two days. The bandits looked panicked, and Mathias spoke up over the pounding rain, “I have shown mercy. You have heard by now of what I did to Silent Moons Camp. Spread the word that I am not to be attacked, or I will do the same to their camp.” He then continued toward Whiterun, his feet flying over the paving stones. Panzer was barely able to keep pace, even with the increased steam pressure in his boiler from the highly-charged crystal. His metal paws clattered loudly as he ran alongside Mathias.
He stopped by the Honningbrew Meadery, mostly to make camp long enough to let his paws rest. ^Remember my training. There is no need to run so hard that my paws bleed. I'll rest here for a half hour, then be back on my way. There is no real need to rush.^ he thought, eating a bit of cooked beef that he'd bought from a traveling merchant. After he finished his meal, he cleaned his hands in the river, got up, and headed into Whiterun. ^I'll rent a room in the Bannered Mare. If anyone's trying to reason with me, they can deal with me when I wake.^ he thought. Mathias looked to his wolf, who was busy trying to drain the river to refuel his boiler, then got up and stood at Mathias' side.
Mathias opened the door to the Bannered Mare, walked up to the counter, and rented a room. Even the bard went quiet, seeing the nine-foot-tall Vaalsark and his metal wolf, not wanting to get between the pair of them and where they were going. Panzer curled up next to the fire pit, keeping warm, while Mathias headed up the stairs, hearing the wood creaking under his weight. He settled onto the bed, planning on sleeping in his armor and robe. ^Star didn't attack me. I'm not nearly wounded enough for an attack. That was more along the line of a really poorly designed prank. Eolhin... Perhaps she lost it when Star lost it. The two of them were both agitated at about the same time, and Eolhin's been acting like a deer who's seen a wolf around me.^ He winced sharply as he felt the Call from Alex. ^What in Oblivion is that? Someone called my Dragon Name, I think, and I dare say I know who did it.^
Mathias reached into his bag of holding, glad he'd emptied his Dwemer trunk into it. He pulled out a flat disk of Aetherium, about the size of a dinner plate, rested it in a small stand, and set it on the table. ^What was it Fjalar the Forgemaster called her? Kiir Alexandria. Hope she's still got whatever she tried to find me with. I'm going to return the call.^
He looked to his reflective disk of Aetherium, then spoke in a quiet tone, “Kiir Alexandria.” The disk started to glow, and Mathias added a splash of water to the top of the disk, making it more reflective.
Alex had started right up where the conversation cut out, and he smiled to himself. ^I'll give her credit, her memory is as sharp as a dagger's edge.^ he thought, before listening as she mentioned that Mora only had the ability to teleport to her from the business deal they had, the trapped scroll that contained a dangerous and powerful curse, one that would have been rather bad if it'd fallen in anyone's hands, had Sanguine not intervened, and then led into the fact of secret keeping.
He waited a few moments to calm his mind from the whirlwind of information, then spoke, also rather quietly, “Mora is a trickster. Always remember that. He wants secrets at any cost, and any deal with him, anything he gives, or takes, is likely to harm someone. It is why I don't like to deal with him. As for the trapped scroll, I was more upset that Mora had nearly pulled off a trap, and had tried to use you as a messenger to do it. In my irritation about the whole hunted-by-Harkon mess, I blew up at you about it, and I shouldn't have.”
Mathias calmed slightly at the knowledge that Alex knew some of the smithing secrets of the Vaalsark. “At least I am not the last who knows how to make some Vaalsark armor. I can work with soul gems, something that was never taught, never passed down from those who knew it. You've witnessed my work before, although that was a rather crude weapon, even by my standards. It was sharp, sure, but age and use made it brittle. As for what I've done to Mora in retaliation for him asking my secrets, have you ever noticed when he assumes a mortal form, he walks with a limp? I nearly burned him in half with a solar fireball. Then I asked Dagon to help me while we were in Apocrypha, and he recreated the Deadlands there, caught Mora with a volcano, and generally created chaos.” he said.
“Regarding Mora, it's good that you've shut him out of your mind. As for Molag Bal, I don't like him, but I can put up with him on the aspect that when he attacks us, it is merely his nature. Plus, I don't think he'd want to mess with me on a one-on-one level with my knowledge of spells anymore. As for Sanguine, well, I don't know him much, other than that he's the Daedric Lord of Drunken Parties, from what Dagon has told me. As for the Daedra who can access my mind, there are two. I know Meridia can contact me, as at one point, I did get Dawnbreaker, though I rarely wield it, and I'm very sure Mehrunes Dagon has contacted me a few times mentally, though he prefers sending Dremora. Apparently I have a loud voice, even before I really began practicing with the Thu'um.”
Mathias waved her over to the table, looking a little more relaxed now. “If you're hungry, yell something down from the balcony. I'm more than capable of paying for any meals you want.” he said, before looking around the room lightly. “I'm planning on staying a while. Brought my bedroll because these beds are just too small for my kind. I know, I could have made a camp outside Whiterun, saved myself the gold, and eaten something I'd hunted down, I just didn't feel like doing that. There will be enough of that between here and Solitude.”
Alex started a little at the abrupt end of the transmission and looked at Mathias. "Now Cian is going to meet us at the main gate, I told him where we were so e would stop freaking out, and I really cant shake him for long because of the nature of the agreement with Stendarr." She shook her head a little and sighed. "Anyway Solitude? mind if I, or rather we, join you. The others split and I really don't feel like visiting the Isles right now. Besides I feel more of a ... connection to you because of the whole Dragon priest/Forgemaster thing." She thought for a moment and nodded to herself. "Ever since I saw your soul gem blade I've been meaning to ask you how to make them and, as I have learned from experience that most knowledge is never free, I can teach you Dragon Priest Craft in exchange. But that will come at a later time." She watched Mathias carefully waiting for a response.
^ Well.... this hasn't happened in a while. Too much crap too fast, and lots of it. One of my most insane weeks yet. Fighting Mora, getting the first severe injury I've had in a really long time, being mentally assaulted, that mess at the Nightgate inn, and everything else after and in between up to the damn vampire attack squad. I went skooma-level nuts from it all. Time to see exactly what went on when I snapped and went from my usual self to the level of a room full of scamps on skooma mentally. ^
Star lifts off, flying up out of the crater, and flies up to a great height, seeing the whole of the Shivering Isles under him as he reviews what happened after his stress broke his limits. He only takes about half an hour due to his speed of thought, making sure he isolates his remembered emotions so he can review what happened without having a relapse.
^ So... I basically snapped when the vampires showed up. Tar and feathering, cabbages, seaweed, all with little regard for concealing energy. Then, because I was too stressed to suppress my sensory abilities to a manageable level, all the hostility flying around got to me, and Mathias chewing out Alex was the last straw that I couldn't take without snapping. I dropped a good portion of Sheogorath's gag gift of a lifetime supply of moldy mammoth cheese all over the place, completely covering Mathias in goop. Eolhin panicked and took off at the speed of light, dropping gelatin cliff racers everywhere, landing a whole pile of them on Mathias, making a bursting mess. Then my portal to the Shivering Isles, and somewhere in the middle of all this I collapsed the group telepathy channel. I think that's it, other than bombing this location with fire. Priority one, check on where the portal was, it will have faded out by now, but someone or something may have come through. ^
Star goes into a descent, heading for New Sheoth from above. As he descends through the air, he corrects various imbalances in his energy from his earlier nervous breakdown. Some of the images from when he freaked out are rather amusing as he goes through them while doing this, the lime cliff racers and cheese bombing being the most amusing. Star can't help it, the scene is funny. Except to Mathias of course, who Star will be avoiding for a bit in order to give him a chance to cool down. Star knows that Mathias must have been utterly furious after that incident. Smelly, runny, moldy cheese and Jello everywhere are unpleasant things to wear.
^ He's going to be quite irate about that one for a while, even if he realizes it was nothing more than a spaz attack. Alex and Cian should be alright, I had better worry about Eolhin, Zrika, and Tenebrae before anything else. ^
After another half hour, Star is at a low enough altitude to come in for a landing. A full six hours and a half hours have passed since he entered the Shivering Isles through his portal, it had taken him half an hour to find the abandoned, Greymarch-ruined fort. Star drops down right in the middle of the palace grounds, like a purple comet. The entire city likely saw it, but he took care not to create an earthquake or anything. He then heads for the Mania side of the city to check where his portal had been, stopping at the spot and examining the area with the occasional annoyed arm wave to chase off inquisitive Golden Saints. His reputation is well known here, both Saints and Seducers know that ticking him off usually results in random, incredibly messy pranks. Picking up on Zrika and Tenebrae's extremely faint lingering energy signatures, he heads in their direction, intending to meet them and see if they are okay.
Mathias gave a light smile as Alex mentioned wanting to learn how to make blades from soul gems. “Knowledge is never free, but learning how to craft as the Dragon Priests once did would be a fair trade for learning to craft with soul gems. Soul gems are a little tough to work with. They require a lot of heat to get to a point where they can be reshaped, but a little more heat and they melt into a puddle and become worthless. You'll need to be comfortable using magic during smithing, as the molten soul gems tend to cling to everything otherwise. You shape the blade using magic, then let it air cool. The end result is a blade that is really sharp. I don't need a forge to heat the soul gems, I just use magic. More controlled.” he said. He got up and placed a simple ward over the doorway from the stairs, and another over the doorway to the balcony. “Those wards should do just enough to keep us safe. It blocks out those with ill intent, including mental intrusions from the Daedra. I usually apply them on tents when I'm in the wild, helps prevent the Daedra from being a royal pain.”
“I'll teach you how to make a soul gem blade some time, when we're not around things that easily burn.” Mathias said, before throwing his bedroll on the floor and laying on it. “Yes, I can sleep in my armor. Warrior's habit. Getting into and out of armor takes a lot of time, and I've never trusted inns to be exactly safe places. Safer than the wilds, sure, though at least in the wilds, you have more room to move if things happen.” he mentioned, before lightly falling asleep.
He opened the door to the Bannered Mare and stepped into the streets of Whiterun, moving through the market swiftly, heading for the Whiterun Gate. Mathias tried to slow his pace, knowing Alex would have a hard time keeping up otherwise, as he headed through the gate and down to the stables.
“We should wait here for Cian. With any luck, he'll be here shortly and we won't have to wait very long, and we can be on the way to Solitude.” Mathias said, keeping watch over the road.
Mathias grimaced at the clattering Panzer was making on the stone road, then pulled a small leather pouch out of his bag, putting four leather paw-boots over Panzer's paws. “That's better. He'll wear through those by Solitude, but at least we won't have to put up with clanking and rattling on the way.”
Mathias turned on the road to Solitude, heading off at a reasonable pace. Cian would be able to keep up easily on horseback, but he was moving fast enough that Alex wouldn't be at risk of falling out of the sky. “Cian, think you'll be able to make Rorikstead before we need a rest?”
The small group made it to Rorikstead in a few hours, meeting no trouble on the way. Mathias walked into the Frostfruit Inn, then set 30 gold coins on the counter to rent three rooms. “We'll rest for now. As long as is needed.” Mathias said.
He looked to make sure the innkeeper wasn't paying attention, then got out a sheet of parchment and started writing with Daedric runes. Mathias' hand was precise, yet swift, as if he'd written in Daedric for a long time. He looked to Alex, then said quietly, “I'm going to step outside for a minute. I'm sure the innkeeper wouldn't appreciate me summoning a Dremora in the building. I need to send a letter to Dagon.”
Mathias stepped outside, behind the building, and summoned a Dremora. “Take this to Mehrunes Dagon. Tell him Valkynaz Valdaan wants to make a statement with this. I want you to then gather as many of Hermaeus Mora's enemies as you can in the Deadlands and keep a standing force ready to attack at a moment's notice.” Mathias said, handing the Dremora the sealed letter. The Dremora vanished and Mathias went back inside.
Zrika woke up around three hours later, muttering about her luck with threes. Tenebrae could only chuckle at her small tree-related anger. "So did that knock some sense into you or do you need to run into another tree again?" Zrika gave Tenebrae a look of annoyance, but with a shrug she nodded. "Yeah. I'm okay now." She sat down and pulled her hood to cover her eyes a little. "This looks like the Shivering isles.. But the colors here are bright.." Tenebrae decided to take a better look of his surroundings, after all this was his first time in the Mad god's realm. Though after a few seconds, he had to agree. The colors here were a bit on the bright side. "There were golden saints when we came through Fallingstar's portal. I guess this is the Mania side. Unless Dementia got all cheery somehow."
Tenebrae's ears flicked, he was slightly worried that Zrika knew this much about this realm. But he decided not to show it and sat down beside the girl. "So your memory is coming back?" The big cat asked, yawning. ~Now that I see it.. These colors are staring to strain my eyes..~ Zrika didn't answer the big cat, and just shrugged. Tenebrae sighed and closed his extra eyes. "So... Then.. Any idea where we are or how to leave this place?" Zrika pulled her hood down more, and shook her head. "Not a clue on either." This left the big cat sighing. "Alright. Then lets rest a bit more and try to find Fallingstar. He will know the way out." Tenebrae saw Zrika nod and he closed his four original eyes. ~A 15 minute break should be enough for my eyes..~
He then stated, ^”At this point, all I want to do is get this damn letter signed by the required beings, and then head out toward Riften. I can get us there quickly, but... while I can fly, and you can fly, Cian can't. I'll deal with my letter in the morning.”^
^”I'm... not entirely sure what to think of that. I mean, in some ways, I see it as a good thing that your contract chose me, but only because it could just as easily have chosen Alduin. On the other hand, I'm worried. Sure, dragons are immortal, but, so far as I have seen, I am as well, at least as much as a flesh and blood being can be.”^ Mathias replied to her, after a careful few moments.
^”What, if I may ask, exactly does this contract require? I'd like to avoid stepping on one another's toes when it comes to dealing with it.”^ Mathias asked a few minutes later.
^ Well, this is the last thing I expected to see after they went through my unstable portal. Or at least close to it. Now I just have to give them a portal to wherever they want to go when they wake up, and get to that Shrine of Talos to clean up my mess, then track down Eolhin. Or they may want to tag along, fine with me. ^
Star sips at his wine-barrel sized drink against the wall, waiting for them to wake up as he runs various thoughts through his head.
The night passed without incident, and Mathias got up early, intending on dealing with the letter before it could waste yet another day. He'd managed to have a good night of sleep, no nightmares and no troubles, though he knew there were still things that had to be done. ^I may be traveling with Alex and Cian, but that means Star, Eolhin, Zrika, and Tenebrae are out in the Wild. Star's portal, I think, was the Shivering Isles. I have a permanent gateway there, but I cannot get to it from here. I have little desire to travel to Cyrodiil and my house in Leyawiin. I also know that Star sided to Mania, I sided with Dementia. Our portals would be in those respective realms. Zrika and Tenebrae are nearly impossible to separate, so wherever they went, they'd be together. Eolhin... She can travel at the speed of light over great distances. She could be anywhere. Star should be able to find her. Probably for the best, Star's proven time and again to be both durable and also a friend to Eolhin.^ he thought, trying to figure their next big plan.
^I know meeting the Graybeards is a wise move. Alex is right, the Old One should be able to tell us more about this contract. All I know is that the two of us somewhat have a conflict of interest. She could get very badly hurt trying to defend me against something that I could otherwise handle on my own. At the same time, I have very strong protective instincts, and could easily throw myself between an enemy and her, despite her ability to survive, merely banished from a realm. I've proven time and again to be hard to kill, but I'm very sure it's possible. My dragon blood might give me immortality and additional advantages, but it can't make me indestructible. Only strength of spirit can do that, and my spirit, while strong, is far from strong enough. And unlike one's body, or the mind, the spirit can't be changed. Still, with luck, the Old One should be able to give us some help, even if it is merely understanding.^
The air outside Rorikstead was cool, and the sun was barely starting to rise. Mathias stood in the doorway, planning the journey. ^They can't run like I can. Alex can fly, but Cian is stuck riding on horseback. Still, there is a way to make it to Solitude in a matter of minutes, provided I use a portal spell. I hate ritual spells. So much time spent making little marks and lining everything up just fine in order to make one portal with enough charge to get from just outside Rorikstead to just outside Solitude's stables. I could do so, but I'd have to ask, and there's risk that the energy flare could be felt. I'll ask when everyone's awake.^
" I'm alright now, I just had to blow off a lot of steam. Too much happened too fast, and I had.... what do people call it outside of the Isles again? Oh right, a nervous breakdown. Or, how Sheogorath would put it, a hilarious burst of mania accompanied by chaos. Vampires attacking on top of everything else that happened recently was too much. I was worried when I saw you and Tenebrae had come through my portal, the Isles can be very dangerous when you get lost. It's good to see that both of you are okay. "
Star stretches, hands raised above his head against the wall, then goes back to leaning on it. He has a odd, amused expression.
" Did you see what happened to Mathias? He's going to be grumpy at me for that. " ( Star chuckles ) " Well, now that you're up, I can take you wherever you want to go, so you aren't trapped here in the Shivering Isles. I have to clean up the mess I made at the Shrine of Talos, and will be looking for Eolhin after that. No plans other than that at the moment. You and Tenebrae can come along if you want when I look for Eolhin, but you probably don't want to visit the Shrine with me, it's likely to smell something fierce, and some of my enemies might be there after what happened to Harkon's vampires. After Tenebrae wakes up, we can leave whenever you're ready. "
Star looks over at the main palace of the city, looking curious about something. " It's a bit odd that Sheogorath hasn't tracked me down yet, or sent Haskill to, but I did hear a lot of laughter coming from the main palace when I landed earlier - so he's probably busy watching my earlier fit over and over again in a mirror or something. He always gets a kick out of what happens when I lose it and do something unexpected. As for why he might look for me - I well... turned a five-thousand year old ruin into a crater after coming here. Nobody was there, but it's generally a bad idea to blow part of a Daedric Lord's realm up. I guess he must not mind that much about that particular spot. "
Star changes position, sitting in midair while levitating as he pulls out a few dozen marbles of various sizes after he's done talking and starts making them orbit each other like planets around a sun, and moons around the planets over his head. He's still paying attention to Zrika, but needs something to amuse him so he stays awake after the long week he's had.
He got out his spell-book, flipping through the pages. ^Where is that old spell of mine? I've got a portal that should mask the exit, even if it is a flare here.^ He opened his ancient map, picking an area just beyond Rorikstead and focusing on it, recalling the area in his mind. ^Just far enough from town that I should be able to do this spell right. It still requires more energy than I can spare on my own, even with my magicka regeneration. I have a spare power crystal, which might work.^ he thought, then reached into his satchel, taking out a darkly colored crystal. He poured his energy and his reserves into it, relying on the Stalhrim armor beneath his robe to keep him cool as he did so. The crystal flickered, taking on a calm blue color before it flared vividly, casting a pale blue light over everything in the room.
Mathias sat there for nearly an hour, the crystal showing no sign of change as his energy replenished rapidly. After he felt renewed again, he grasped for the glowing gem, then poured his reserves into it again, increasing the brightness until it was nearly white. “Between this and what I'll have by then, I'll have just enough to make the portal. On this side, it'll be a beacon of energy, but no one will be able to find the exit once it closes.” he mentioned to Alex. “I've used these portals exactly twice. Think of your old lore, you know of the type I mean, and you'll know when, where, and why.” he said to her, referencing his time in the Dark Brotherhood.
He got up, heading for the door with the brightly glowing crystal in one hand, and his spell-book in the other. Mathias headed between the buildings, intending on traveling to the Shrine of Akatosh. He took care to not move too quickly, so that Cian could keep up. His staff finally turned dark as Mathias recalled the energy he used to keep it lit, knowing he'd need every scrap of his magicka to do this the right way. ^No mistakes. I can't afford mistakes. Mistakes could cost my companions their lives.^ he thought.
They reached the shrine, and despite Mathias not having any religious preferences to speak of, he prayed at the Shrine of Akatosh. While his mind and voice were silent, Akatosh certainly knew of Mathias' silent prayer, that there was no mocking in it, and so bestowed his blessing upon the ancient Vaalsark, not just increasing his magicka regeneration for a short time, but fully saturating his reserves with enough energy to not need the crystal. He winced and growled in pain, looking back to the twins.
“I will be fine.” he growled out, his eyes glowing from the amount of energy he now had stored within him. His aura was wild, demanding to be set free, and so Mathias made his marks on the ground, taking care to make them without error, knowing he had only one chance at this. He looked to his journal at times, comparing the marks written in ink to the marks made in shining golden dust.
With the marks complete, Mathias spoke the incantation written in his native tongue, and the energy within him flared, feeling the call of a spell not used since the early Third Era. The energy was unleashed, and within moments, the golden dust melted into gold, followed by a rushing roar as the portal opened, showing the road to Solitude, just nearby Meridia's temple. “Go, now. I shall follow.” he said, as Panzer stepped through the portal.
Once Alex and Cian had gone through, Mathias stepped through as well, then spoke the incantation to dispel the portal, leaving only a faint energy beacon near a shrine of Akatosh, and some strange golden marks burned into the ground, as had last been seen in the Temple of the One in the year 41 of the Third Era, just after the death of Pelagius I, and one time before that, in the Year 431 of the Second Era, burned into the floor of Potentate Savirien-Chorak's bedchamber. On the Solitude side of the portal, the whispers of magic dissipated the instant the portal had closed, leaving them nearly untraceable. Mathias put the glowing crystal away, knowing the worth of having an instant boost of energy available, especially now that his energy followed a similar spectrum to the two energy beings in their group.
Mathias looked worn, despite the trip being instant, as he'd provided the energy to get Alex, Cian, Panzer, Umarithial, and himself from Rorikstead to Solitude. The energy needed for that was equivalent to what they would all have spent to travel on foot. “We got lucky. Akatosh provided most of that energy, but it still drained what I had to spare. I won't drain from the crystal, though. I should keep that for an emergency. I just need to take it easy on the walk there. Between holding that energy back and actually traveling through the portal, I used more magic than usual. Someone is sure to have felt that one. The good news is, we're dust in the wind. No one knows where we ended up. I know this because I've used this twice before. Both times while in the service of the Dark Brotherhood.” Mathias said, before walking up the road.
Zrika giggled a bit at the mention of what had happened to Mathias. "Yep saw that. That was funny. Though at first it was quite shocking." Tenebrae sat down beside Zrika and gave a small mumble as though he agreed. Most of his extra eye were closed save the ones on his chest and shoulders. "Is this place always so brightly colorful..?" Zrika heard the cat yawn before she decided to think about on what Fallingstar had said. After what it seemed like five minutes she nodded to herself and looked at Fallingstar. "We would like to, or rather I." she gave a shrug using her tail to point at Tenebrae. "Would like to help you find Eolhin. I'm worried for her. As for the shrine.. I might need to avoid that. Don't want to see frozen vampires like that again. However if you do need help, we can come with you to there regardless." She wagged her tail, again minding the wall where as Tenebrae only rolled his extra eyes.
"I'll give a guess that whatever seems delightfully mad to the mad god, he's okay with it." Tenebrae said. The big cat got up to stretch out his body, causing some eyes to open but they closed as soon as he was done. "As for where we could go while you go to the shrine in the event you do not need us. You may send us to Bruma. I myself need to pick up my armor. Just in case this curse runs out in an unexpected time." As he was speaking, his left fore-paw shifted to look like his back paws. Which was just talons. "Speak of the shift." He mumbled afterward. Tail flicking in annoyance. Tenebrae did take notice in Fallingstar's little orbit of marbles. But decided not to comment. Though, the big cat did seem to be smiling a little.
Mathias headed toward Solitude, though stopped near the carriage. “I have a line of credit on the carriages. I tend to send things around with them. I planned to go here alone, but I was glad of the company on the trip. However, I cannot walk the path of peace while traveling with companions, so for now, I leave you. If you have need of me, I will be in Proudspire Manor, but unless the need is great, I won't travel. There's enough money to take the two of you just about anywhere in Skyrim you would want to go.”
Mathias left them with those parting words, then headed for the gate to Solitude. He walked in, headed up to Castle Dour, where Titus Mede II and Queen Ayrenn were waiting, and presented his pardon letter. Within moments, it was signed, stamped, sealed, and word sent by Mages to the far corners of the world that Mathias Valdaan was no longer an enemy of the Thalmor or the Empire. Soon after that, he left Castle Dour and headed home to Proudspire Manor, needing a good rest after the journey.
Alex looked at Sapphira and smiled pulling herself off the ground, “So where are you headed,” she asked after a moment. “I was headed for Rorikstead to look at marks on the ground left by someone near the Shrine of Akatosh because strange symbols have appeared in the soil.” “Can I come along?” Alex asked, “I don’t see why not.” Sapphira replied. The two summoned there horses and headed off to Rorikstead and Sapphira took a quick look at the ground and made her report about it being some remnants of a portal and then the pair headed towards Whiterun and the devastation at the shrine of Talos.
" The shrine is likely to be very unpleasant right about now - that cheese has been in the sun for a while. Bruma.. alright, I can send you there. I'll pick you back up after I deal with the mess at the shrine, I should know which direction Eolhin went after going there. This is a stable gate I'm readying - nobody should be able to sense anything on the exit end, though it is slightly noticeable here, despite being contained. It'll leave you behind the cathedral, where you won't be likely to catch much attention. "
The sphere of crystalline elemental energy expands, becoming a ring in the air with a slight shimmer inside the ring of energy, roughly eight feet tall and hovering just off the ground.
" Take these, if there is some massive emergency, blow any tune on them - or just make a racket. They're enchanted to catch my attention from great distances, even from the other side of Tamriel. "
Star takes out a couple of crystal flutes from one of his pocket dimension portals, leaving them levitating in midair.
" I don't know why I never made any use of these before now, I just remembered making them a long time ago just so I had something to contact people with in case of an emergency. Too much clutter in the attic I guess... Bah. I'll close this portal behind you after you go through, I'm going to use a different method to get to the shrine of Talos. Just in case Mora's friends are looking for me here. "
Star turns his attention to the new portal, maintaining it and making sure no magical interference causes a problem.
Once Zrika and Tenebrae have gone through the portal and arrived in Bruma, Star shuts the portal behind them, retracting its leftover energies back into his body as he closes it. The mad solar orbit of marbles stops, and all of the marbles disappear into the hidden pocket in Star's outfit that they came from.
Star stands in place for a minute or so, thinking, then suddenly dematerializes into a grizzly bear sized nimbus of multicolored light, armor and all, which vanishes from the Shivering Isles, travelling through the barriers between the Oblivion Realms and Tamriel in the space of a few thousandths of a second. The nimbus reappears near one of the weaker spots in the barriers between Oblivion and Tamriel, about fifty feet away from the Sacellum of Boethiah, dimming to near invisible after the transit and becoming virtually undectectable as Star masks his presence. From there, it moves at near-lightspeed to the Shrine of Talos where the incident with cheese and vampires happened, hiding in the reflection of the sun in the pool. There is a rather interesting sight going on, the vampires have thawed out and left, and a couple of trolls are busy cleaning up the last big chunks of cheese mess and gelatin Cliff Racer. Star thinks to himself as he waits for them to finish, highly amused.
^ It seems as though nature decided to clean up most of the mess for me. And over there, a giant's footprint at the water's edge. It was mammoth cheese after all, it looks like the giant at Cradlecrush Rock came by and gathered a bulk amount of cheese, then when it became ripe from the sun, the trolls at Darkshade smelled it and came for the rest. I'll still have some to clean up once they are finished, but it won't nearly be as much as what was here before I left for the Isles. ^
While he waits for the trolls to finish off the last few large splatters of cheese, Star scans the area repeatedly, looking for the aftereffects of a lightspeed or even relativistic transit caused by a panicked Hooloovoo. After two hours, he finds it just as the trolls are shambling off. The last scattered third or fourth tier effects of a lightspeed energy transit, enough for him to use high-speed calculations to determine the general direction that Eolhin went. The general direction of Winterhold.
^ Judging from what I know about Eolhin, I'd bet a thousand Septims that she went for the Shrine of Azura near Mount Anthor. One of the safest places in Tamriel for her to go. Hopefully Azura has been helping her deal with her mental stress. She really needs that kind of help right now. I'll swing by there later, after I clean up what the giant and the trolls missed here. Have to remember to pick up Zrika and Tenebrea as well. Hm... the vampires have thawed. I may have made a miniscule time-error while transitioning between Oblivion and Tamriel. One extra day since Zrika and Tenebrea arrived in Bruma. Blast, should have used a portal myself instead of being paranoid and using direct travel, portals are more accurate. Fiddlesticks and dancing brooms, what an annoyance. Oh well, cleaning time. ^
A mist of gold light emanates from Star's position after the trolls are out of sight, causing the remaining mess to completely disappear. It simply melts away like snow in the dawn, as if it had never been there to begin with. During the cleaning spell, Star also rearranges anything that has been knocked around near the shrine, putting it in its proper place. He picks up on a dim aura of approval from the shrine itself, Talos has taken notice of the cleaning effort and is giving a moment of his time to acknowledge it while busy with whatever divine business he has at the moment, putting two and two together or maybe having tracked Star somehow all along.
Following the cleanup, Star heads to Bruma to pick Zrika and Tenebrae up, materializing back into physical form armor and all two feet away from thier current position after lightspeed travel.
Zrika narrowed her eyes and only smiled a little, though it was obviously forced. "He should still be in Chaydinhal... And yet he was able to get all the way here.. Skooma must be something for this.." A sigh came in reply from the roof and Zrika could only shrug at the dunmer. "Yeah. There are NO cliffracers here. Now.. Go home.. If you have one." The dunmer opened his mouth, and in fear that he would sing again, Zrika summoned a dremora and had it pick up the dunmer and run to the other side of town with him. Though as she realized that the dunmer might have actually wanted to speak her ears dropped. "Maybe that was a bit too.. Rude of me." with a small sigh, she turned around and jumped back, seeing Fallingstar right then. "Ah... How long were you..?" She began, then quickly shook her head. "Ah. Not what I should say. Anyway hey there Fallingstar! I'm guessing the shrine clean-up is done?" Her tail wagged about in a nervous fashion. She wanted to ask if something had happened for it to have taken so long. But.. Then that would have been too intrusive. In Zrika's mind anyway.
"Yo Fallingstar! What took you so long? A few vampires were wandering about or something?" Zrika again, jumped. Though since she jumped backward, she bumped into Tenebrae. Or rather that's where it came from anyway. " Do you have to jump at every little thing? Geeze..." A rather tall creature helped Zrika regain her footing and then waved at Fallingstar with his talons. Zrika looked a little annoyed, but she just gave a small smile and wagged her tail. "Would rather jump at everything then let anything get the jump on us." The creature gave Zrika a look with its four eyes then shook his head. "Ah.. Sure.." The creature shrugged and looked over to Fallingstar again. Since at this point it was obvious, this creature was Tenebrae. Like he was in Zrika's memory his fur was charcoal black and had features that resembled both a dragon and a wolf. His head was more dragon-like with a sharp beak-like shape for a muzzle/mouth. Needless to say, he had no wolf nose but he did have a few spikes lined on his snout. The ears on his head were straight and long. They were facing backward however, as though he was born with them that way. One was able to ell that Tenebrae had a thick coat, mostly from his neck, as the rest of his body was covered in something the resembled leather armor. But with no shine to it, save for the glass-like material that filled holes that were eye-shaped.
These glass-covered holes seemed to be all around the armor. Apparently it was for his many eyes. And boy, were there a lot of holes. More than 200 if someone took the time to count. The armor itself, was a pale black, so if Tenebrae was standing in a dark room, not many people would think he was wearing anything. Unless you shone a light on the glass-holes. His hand... Err.. Talons were not covered. As there was no need to do so. They were long but with a small flex of his talons, they seem to be able to shrink in size. The talons themselves were obsidian black. This no armored rule seemed to apply to his feet/paws/talons? As well. However, they looked more like paws than talons. From the angle Tenebrae was in one could also see his back spikes. Though the most note-able ones were the two slightly below his shoulder blades. Sure, he also had spikes on his elbows and shoulders, but the two here were slightly bigger, and they were curved slightly. If one looked closely you'd see that the spines are actually broken. As though something was ripped from them. Tenebrae's tail was long, and shaped similar to a dragon's with his bladed spade. Tenebrae crossed his arms, and from the glass holes, you could see that a few of his eyes had opened. "Umm.. Yeah before you ask. This is Tenebrae and this is my.. True form." Zrika gave Tenebrae an annyoed stare, then gave Fallingstar a concerned look. "Are you okay? want to rest a bit? The house is nearby and we have food and drinks.."