Loyalty or No SV you Are the Daedra

[Kyrina]

You don't need to bother with a sword on this pathetic little wolf. Plus it's not like you're flammable since you're made of crystal. "Now, I must crush you." You intone in your best faux Russian accent. You kinda sound like a terrible Russian Bond villain but life's not perfect. That doesn't stop you grabbing the wolf's front legs with one hand and it's back legs with the other and raising it over your head. You bring your knee up and the wolf comes smashing down.

CRACK!

Two halves of re-dead burning wolf hit the floor with a thump, bits of shattered spine protruding from each half.

"Thank you Fast, though next time perhaps you should just sword it in the face." Morlia doesn't raise her voice but from the uplifted eyebrow and tick under one eye you get the feeling she's really quite annoyed with you. Diana clinging to her side staring numbly at the mutilated dead wolf gives you an idea as to why.

"Sorry, I didn't expect a simple wolf would give me so much trouble." You kick the back half and a couple of gold coins are dislodged from somewhere inside it. How does it have coins? "Huh, cool." You decide and scoop up the coins.

"T-Take some of the flesh too," Diana says hesitantly, "it's a powerful reagent for certain potions." Obligingly you rip off a slightly less charred chunk of desiccated wolf flesh. You don't hand it too her, you get the feeling that would be too much right now. You look around the room again, now there's not an undead wolf to distract you.

It's still mostly trashed and partly caved in but there's a couple of pots and jars dotted around, some partly cracked open and others not. There's just the one way onward, opposite the way you came in. You can't tell what's down there, it's all shrouded in darkness that's not penetrated by Diana's light spells.

[ ] Loot?

[ ] How do you proceed or retreat?

 

[Kyrina]

Time to loot! But, given this is a deadly, trap infested Ayleid ruin, you're going to loot responsibly. Or at least as close to responsibly as you can. Not to mention give Morlia and Diana a lesson in how not to die in these places. Alright they may already know but it's best to cover the bases before the ceiling turns into spikes and falls on someone's head. Or you find another corridor of swinging axes. So many bad escort mission memories right there.

"Hey Morlia, wanna summon a scamp and get it to watch that other corridor while me and Diana loot?" You suggest. The High Elf stares balefully at you.

"Fast, Diana if you want to see if those pots and jars contain anything I shall watch the way back and summon a creature to observe the way forwards." She says blandly and stalks towards the archway you just came through, waving her hand toward the other corridor as she does. A scamp, better formed than the previous one, scampers to the relevant corridor and waits, staring into the gloom.

"Maybe you shouldn't tell your summoner what to do." Diana suggests quietly, glancing at Morlia to see if she heard.

"Whatever, she'll get over it." You dismiss the thought with an idle hand wave. "Now, here's how to loot these ruins safely. A most secret and noble art." You pose proudly and check the room again, just in case. Nothing seems different, scratches on the walls, broken stone benches and tables, caches of broken and unbroken jars. No chests, much to your disappointment, but they'd probably be booby trapped anyway.

"Rule one, always give a room a once over before you begin. I just did that so we don't have to worry about it." You nod sagely. Diana nods hesitantly.

"Rule two, watch the floors." You point to the white stone floor dramatically. Diana follows the instruction and stares at the innocuous flooring.

"Rule three, watch the ceilings." The white stone over your head doesn't look like it's about to turn into spikes and crush you, which is good. Actually it's got a quite nice marbling effect with some red veins running through it now you're looking closely and.... Focus!

"Rule four, watch the walls." Diana pokes the nearest wall. Nothing happens and she raises a skeptical eyebrow at you.

"Rule five, if it is a grille, a slit, a hole or a series of holes, it is a trap, and will kill you." There aren't any of those around to prove your point, likely why the zombie survived in here.

"Rule six, glowy crystals are valuable, and come in two kinds. Welkynds, which recharge your mana, and Varlas, which recharge all enchanted items you're carrying, and command a hefty price. The former are sometimes out of reach, but can be retrieved by hitting them with missiles or telekinesis, while latter are caged, but can always be opened by a switch nearby." That grabs Diana's attention.

"So that's why you tried to grab the ones on the upper level." She says, rummaging through pots now you've stopped telling her how not to die.

"Yep, dead useful Welkynd stones." You agree and start carefully removing the tops of pots to look inside them. Most house nothing but dirt and dust. In one though you find something really useful. A purplish crystal, a soul gem!

"It's only petty," Dianna says, disappointed. "Not even full either." She sighs but pockets it all the same. "Are we going further in?"

"Do you want to?" You ask, you didn't miss the tremor in her voice when she asked that question.

"I... yes." She hesitates for a second but nods firmly and smiles. "It's not like you and Morlia could do this without me, right?"

"Right." You don't miss the way her smiles gets wider and more confident at your answer.

[ ] Go into the shadows

[ ] Backtrack to the corridor of death

[ ] Something else

 

[Kyrina]

You shall become one with the shadows ahead, slinking through the darkness like a panther cool and collected and....

"Scamp goes first." Morlia orders and the scamp in question scuttles forwards into the darkness. You hear it's claws tapping away on the tiles as it goes. So much for being quiet and stealthy.

With a sigh you follow the little daedra into the darkened corridor, Diana and Morlia following with their light spells. The corridor is short and boring. You keep a look out for potential traps but all you see in the pool of dim greenish light is white stone and the occasional decorative carving or gold work. Nothing at all special so you keep going. The scamp isn't dead and you haven't seen a single concerning thing. So much for every wall, floor and ceiling in this place trying to kill you.

Then you come to a room. It's about as large as a tennis court with pillars half the height of the ceiling two foot out from each corner. There a glowing green blue stone perched on top of the pillar in the first left corner. You could probably reach it if you persuaded Morlia to climb onto your shoulders. In the middle of the room is a corpse, partly mummified and it looks like it's been mauled at some point. The arch into more darkness is dead ahead of you and there are alcoves shrouded in shadow in the right and left walls.

"So that's a Welkynd stone." Diana points to the glowing green blue crystal atop the pillar.

"Yep, just gotta figure out how to get it down now." You say and put on your thinking cap. Something tells you Morlia won't be very amused if you suggest she climb on your shoulders to get the stone.

[ ] What do?

 

[Kyrina]

Several strategies present themselves to you. Chopping the head off the corpse and chucking it at the welkynd stone. Throwing the whole thing at it. Throwing the scamp up to grab it, now that is very tempting. Trying to level your jumping ability just jump higher and grab it yourself. Alternately you could just blast it, either yourself or suggest it to Diana and Morlia, but there is a chance that it'd explode.

"Right," you say and draw your sword of crystal. "I'm gonna make sure that's actually a corpse and not another zombie. Maybe the scamp could keep an eye out while I do." You suggest, hoping that will preserve Morlia's pride some.

"That's a good idea," Morlia nods once. "I shall allow it. Patrol the area." She orders the scamp and it scuttles off around the outside of the pillars, looking around with each step. You step into the middle of the room, raising your sword to stab the corpse to determine its animatory status.

Under your feet the stones shift down. There are two clicks, one from above and one from below. You have just enough time to look up and see spikes pop out of the ceiling.

"Oh fu-" the stone floor rockets upwards and spikes sheer through you. Shoulders, arms, head, neck, chest, legs... no where is spared. Some have gone right through you, crystal armour peeling back like flower petals from the wicked spikes.

"Fast!" Morlia screams as the floor smashes back into place. You clatter after it a few seconds later, too soon to trigger the pressure pad anew thank god. Nothing hurts but the holes feel... cold and wrong. And your right arm isn't there at all. You can see it but you can't feel it. Makes sense you suppose since it's mostly severed and attached only by shards of crystal.

Health: 18/90
​

[ ] What do now?

Guys... guys, you forgot Skew's list of things to do when looting.

 

[Kyrina]

"Ow..." you wheeze out, more because you feel you should than from actual pain. "Well it's not a zombie... yay." You punch the air with your not almost severed arm.

"Divines Fast...." Diana gingerly touches the edges of one of the holes in your chest. "A-Are you alright?"
get off the trap
"It's a suit of armour Diana, I doubt Fast can feel pain." Morlia doesn't need to be so scathing and Diana glares at her. "Look one of us would be dead from that or screaming in agony. Is it doing either of those? No, therefore it can't feel pain."

"Uh, ladies, kinda lying here with holes in places I don't want to have holes and I'm down one arm. Healing, please." You do not want to find out that despite a lack of blood you can still somehow bleed out or something. Actually you picked up that healing spell in town didn't you.
Get Off The Trap!
"See that's what happens when you don't pay attention. Luckily I am a daedra with a healing spell! F-beeep you injuries I have magic!" You wiggle your fingers like you remember the guy selling it did. A double helix of white and blue light spirals up and down your body.

Some of the holes look slightly smaller. You focus angrily on the holes in your body, wiggle your fingers and will them closed with all your might. A couple close up and you can sort of feel your right hand. There are a couple of lumps of jagged irregular crystal have formed where the holes used to be and you can see more around the edges of your almost removed arm.
GET OFF THE TRAP!!
That's odd but...GET OFF THE BLOODY TRAP!!...you should really get off the platform now. You obey the increasingly loud shouting in your head and roll off the platform, shedding that weird crystal as you do. Morlia sighs and puts her hand, carefully, on the tattered crystal around your arm.

"Divines only know why this even affects you." She mutters and closes her eyes. White and blue light, considerably more effective than your own attempts, spirals over you closing holes as it passes. Once she removes her hand you feel just as whole and fit as you did before.

You get up and....

Leave the ruin, remaining here will only get you killed and harm the cause of ord-

No! God no you are not leaving! What about the sweet loots? The deep mysteries of the Ayleids? The Welkynd ston-

Leave the ruin. Leave the ruin. Leave the ruin. Leave the-

"I said no damn you order-boy!" You shout hands pressed to your head, almost every voice you can hear denying the impulse to abandon the ruins.

"F-Fast are you okay?" Morlia asks tentatively, she looks scared her face pale and her eyes too wide. Diana's hugging the elf and hiding a little behind her. Either you said something when order-boy had control, you don't think you did, or that last thing you said freaked both of them out.

"Fine... I'm fine, just had a little disagreement up here," you tap the side of your helmet. "Nothing to worry about, now let me just...." You draw your sword and jab the platform. It triggers, sending the corpse spike-wards once more. It falls and before the trigger can reset you grab the body by the nearest limb and pull it off the platform.

Right. You shake the mummified corpse a bit and nothing falls out. A quick search reveals nothing. You grab some of the dead flesh, probably useful for potion making, and lop off the head.

You pick up the severed head, to a disgusted sound from Morlia, and chuck it overarm at the Welkynd stone. You hit it dead on and it falls to the ground and thankfully doesn't shatter on impact. Go you.
Where the jagged crystals fell off you they seem to be taking root.
[ ] What now?

 

[Kyrina]

"Sorry about shouting at myself." You tell Morlia and Diana. "It really is nothing to worry about, I have it all under control... we have it under control." At least you hope you do.

With a couple of quick, but cautious steps, you keep outside the pillars and approach the Welkynd stone. Nothing springs out at you, which is good since Morlia looks more than a little tired from getting you back in working order. Before anything can change that you scoop up the glowing crystal. It's about the size of both your fists and the glow is actually slightly warm, it sort of feels like you're holding a rock that's been out in blinding sunlight all day. Huh, weird.

As you turn to go back something glitters in the glow of the stone, it's in the alcove on this side of the room. You step closer, still being cautious and not putting your full weight down until you're sure it's not a trap. It's a chest, made of the same golden metal that decorates these ruins. Carefully you look for a booby trap attached to it. There doesn't seem to be one and you try opening it.

The lid hinges open smoothly, much to your surprise, and nothing terrible happens. Delightful. Inside the chest are a pair of pale blue potion bottles that slosh when you shake them, eight gold coins and a dagger. The dagger glows faintly white with its own light. Must be enchanted then. You aren't sure what with though, maybe Morlia or Diana will know.

"Hey, I found some stuff!" You call to them. "And where I walked is safe so stick to there, okay?" Your two companions come over warily. You hold to dagger out towards them. "Either of you know what this does?"

"It's a turn undead enchantment." Diana answers, peering at the dagger closely like she's half blind or something. "Not very strong but it would have been useful to help with that... d-dog." Her voice cracks and she shrinks into Morlia's side. The elf pats her on the head awkwardly.

"Huh, awesome." You say and press the weapon against your left gauntlet. It melts through the crystal armour and vanishes without a trace. You quickly add the rest of your gains to the stockpile you've got absorbed in your crystal and almost start towards the next room on. Then you see small shards of blue grey crystal encrusting the floor where you'd healed yourself. Very familiar blue grey crystal.

Your head-voices are all pretty concerned about that.

"Uh... have you two ever seen anything like that before?" You ask and point to it. Morlia shakes her head, frown drawing her pale eyebrows down over her green gold eyes. She walks swiftly back to where you were, you and Diana follow quickly, and kneels to examine it more closely.

"It looks like your crystal armour." Morlia says slowly, standing and dusting herself down. Then her eyes widen and she steps away. "Did you just... reproduce yourself! Is that going to grow into another you!?" She's not taking the idea of more than one of you running around well. You don't really blame her, the clone would probably be evil.

"I don't think so," if anything this strikes you as the potential start of a greymarch. Nope, not having that! You stamp on the crystal, viciously grinding it to dust under your heel. "And now we'll never know." You say happily.

"I don't even..." Morlia stops herself before she can finish. "Let's just keep going." She marches past you and you run to get ahead of her and test the untested stone tiles with the tip of your sword. You are not getting caught by that kind of trap again!

The short corridor before the next room in unremarkable and un-trapped. You do spot a few loose bits of stone and pick them up. The next Welkynd stone probably won't have a convenient corpse to dismember and throw at it.

When you enter the room Morlia stifles a scream behind one hand and stares in horror at the neat stacks of corpses around the edges of the room. Each is four corpses high, exactly uniform, and all are mummified by time. They all look relatively un-wounded, only a few you can see have any marks at all. Stab wounds to either the chest or neck, quick clean kills as far as you can tell.

To the left is a pool of water, lapping at the top of what appears to be a stairwell. It seems that area is flooded for some reason. There's another door to the left, or rather doorway the door itself seems to be long gone.

"I don't like this." Diana says quietly, staring at the stacked up bodies. She's not as affected by them as Morlia but this is still intensely disturbing, even for someone who animates the dead. "I don't like this at all."

[ ] What do?

 

[Kyrina]

"Morlia, Diana, please, the dead can't hurt you and I won't let any undead hurt you." You tell both of them as warmly as you can with your grinding crystal voice. You've proved that last part you think.

"O-Okay," Morlia looks green around the gills. "I-I'll see if any of t-those aren't d-dead." Light flickers around her eyes for a second and she looks around before staring at the empty doorway. "T-There's something lying down over there... something undead." She murmurs, pointing slightly to the right of the archway.

"Good to know, good to know." You say. "Lets see what's here for the looting then." You clap your hands together and Morlia's scamp jumps at the crashing sound. With hindsight perhaps that wasn't the best idea. "We can always head back if you like." You offer.

"No, no it's fine." Diana says at once. "I just wasn't... prepared for anything like this." She hugs her arms around herself briefly before her back straightens, in imitation of a certain High Elf you know.

"Okay, just make sure you test the floor or just stand where I do. Mmkay?" You say lightly and start across the floor, prodding the stones with your sword as you go. Nothing tries to murder you horribly as you go and you don't see anything suspicious. Something glimmers gold at in the water, near the top of the stairs. You make your careful way over and reach into the freezing water. Now you're closer you can see the piles of stone rubble filling in whatever corridor' s down that way. Looks like that is a dead end.

You bring out a golden amulet and a couple of coins. "That's an amulet of Stendarr." Diana touches the amulet gently a regretful sort of look on her face.

You start on the bodies, Morlia and Diana stay away for this, slightly sick looks on their faces. You recover from the stacks of the dead twenty eight more coins, two lockpicks a copper ring that almost comes with a finger for free and a handful of shards that are dark purple that's almost black. You show them to the girls and Morlia glares at them, Diana looks away with glistening eyes.

"Black soul gem shards." Morlia hisses furiously, flames flashing at her fingertips. "Arkay have pity on these poor souls, wherever they are." Diana mutters the same a second later and you close your fist around the shards. You think about the Soul Cairn. Dark purple dust trickles between your fingers.

[ ] What do you do now?

 

[Kyrina]

You check the room one more time. Nothing jumps out at you as being wrong or concerning or potentially lootable. Right, time to deal with that undead whatever Morlia saw through the wall. The dagger of turn undead settles into your hand, much lighter than your sword but pretty comforting all the same. The amulet sort of oozes out of the crystal around around the base of your helm. It can't quite hang around your neck, the chain isn't long enough, hopefully that'll help in some way. If not you'll probably give it to Diana.

"Right, stay behind me. We're going into a fight and we're going to be prepared for it." You say very seriously to them. "You both good?"

"We're prepared, if that's what you mean." Morlia answers quietly, dare you think dangerously.

"Yep, let's go." You sing and start walking to the empty arch. Diana and Morlia follow behind you but not right behind you, just close enough to cover you. You progress carefully, focusing on the stone ahead of you. Something catches the light and you freeze. There's a tripwire across the next empty door frame come archway.

"Careful here, don't touch the wire. Might be useful for leading the whatever back into." You tell them and step carefully over the wire. Morlia and Diana follow suit, you offer them a hand each with it. Diana grabs on Morlia doesn't.

You hear something, a scrape of fabric or leather on stone. "Fast look out!" Morlia screams and you lurch backwards.

A freezing hand locks around your forearm regardless. A pale skinned man, his eyes scarlet and wild, bares huge, stiletto sharp fangs at you like an animal. A vampire... great. Scarlet strands of something, magical energy maybe, rip out of your crystal arm and sink into the vampire's chest.

Something like cunning flickers to life in its eyes and they shift towards Morlia. The vampire licks its lips.

Health 82/90
Magicka 130/130
Stamina 150/150​

[ ] What do?

Sorry for the wait, got talked into starting a quest while talking @Verminlord1 into starting a quest..... We need to stop doing that to each other.

 

[Kyrina]

You clamp your hand around its arm. "Now who's got who, leech?" You ask it savagely and the dagger melts into your armour. You really hope this works and you concentrate on having it emerge from your face like a unicorn's horn. Seems appropriate since those are savage buggers in Oblivion as far as you recall.

Your face feels kinda... weird, a pressure right between where your eyes should be. That probably means it' s working, right? Without another thought you ram your helmet-face into the vampire's. Teach him a lesson about turning away from you!

Your face meets his with an almighty crack, like you just smashed two coconuts together, and the creature screams. Drawing back, a little dazed, you catch sight of a hole in the side of the vampire's face. You've gouged out most of its cheek it seems and taken a chunk of skull out as well. That's.... kinda gross actually. Its eyes focus back on you and snarls something, a word maybe, and your world is pain.

Red floods out of you, great ropy strings of it that just dissipate into the air rather than into the vampire. It's feels like something's just taken an ice cream scoop to your insides and carved out a chunk leaving you partly empty. You still cling to the creature, pain tightening your hold, and no matter how it struggles it can't get free.

"Set it on fire! Set it on fire!" You shout desperately you don't want to go through whatever the fuck that spell was again.

Morlia, Diana and the scamp all open fire on the vampire. Your two friends with considerably more hate on their faces than the scamp. Little creature just looks terrified.

The vampire briefly becomes a tower of fire and you yank your hands back just in case you're more flammable than you thought. Then the thing collapses into dust and ashes and the flames wink out.

"Good work team." You say weakly. "Also, owwww."

Health 72/80(90)
Magicka 130/130
Stamina 150/150
​

[ ] What do?

Gonna admit, become a unicorn plan won because I found it hilarious and demonstrated that yes, you can abuse the absorb loot feature to an extent.

 

[Kyrina]

"Are you okay? We didn't burn you too, right?" Diana rushes to you, eyes frantically raking over your arms for black burn marks. You aren't burnt but whatever spell the vampire did still lingers, a hollow ache inside.

"I'll be fine, just gotta do the healing thing." You tell her and do the finger wiggle that activates the healing spell. Twin helixes of white and blue light spiral up and down your form. You feel a little better. One more time and you almost feel alright again. The hollow ache is still there, you can't seem to shift it. Probably a long term effect of that spell.

"Why is there a dagger sticking out of your helmet?" Morlia asks dryly, staring at the mentioned item.

"I'm half unicorn?" You suggest jokingly. Diana stifles a laugh behind a hand, good it's better than her being terrified of the things in here, Morlia just glares flatly. "It seemed like a good idea at the time and it was. Anyway, either of you guys alchemists? Is vampire dust useful for potions or stuff?"

"It can be, relatively expensive too since it's pretty hard to obtain." You can see why that's the case, without those fire spells from Morlia and Diana and the scamp killing that vampire would have been much tougher. You scoop a double handful of the ashes and promptly have no idea where to store it. Morlia rolls her eyes and fishes a velvet pouch out of a pocket. You trickle the dust in and start onward.

You don't see any bits of creepy crystal falling off you. Maybe that's because you didn't have to regrow any of the armour crystal. The room the vampire was lurking in is empty. There's just a stone bed thing, which is probably were it was when Morlia saw it with her detect life spell. Thinking of Morlia's detect life spell....

"You gonna keep using that detect life spell?" You ask her before you approach the door frame in the right hand wall of the vampire's empty lair. There are scratches on the walls. Each looks like it's been made deliberately, like the thing was counting days. There are a lot of marks, enough to cover every wall.

"Of course." Morlia snaps back. "You keep looking for traps and I'll keep looking for enemies." That seems reasonable. You keep up the routine of poking every floor tile with your sword before stepping on them and examining every shadow to see if it's a trap trigger. So far nothing.

You enter the next room and Morlia points at an alcove. You grip your sword a little tighter and approach. Whatever it is you aren't letting it get the drop on you this time.

When the skeleton jumps out of the alcove, mace in it's bony hands, you're ready and strike before it can. Your sword smashes into it's rib-cage, shattering bone and putting a huge chip into the spine. It manages to bring the mace down on your arm, denting the crystal a little.

You do the first thing you can think of. You slam your head into its. The dagger punches a hole right into the middle of its skull. It turns to run, the enchantment taking effect, but cracks spider-web out from the dagger hole and the skull crumbles. Without the skull the rest of the skeleton collapses into a jumbled pile of bones. Well that was easy.

"Oooh, a chest!" Diana points to a white and gold chest tucked into the alcove the skeleton had been in. You walk over to it suspiciously, Morlia directing her scamp to grab her some of the skeleton's bones. At first glance it's not booby trapped. At second glance it's not trapped. You nudge it with one foot. Still no death flying from the walls. That'll have to be enough.

You open it and groan at the sparse pickings inside. A scroll, thirty five golden coins and a paint brush. A goddamn paint brush! What the hell!

"Guess the vampire took most of the contents huh?" Diana murmurs, taking the paintbrush and staring at it curiously. Then she lets it go. It hangs in the air.

"That's weird." You comment. absorbing the other items absentmindedly.

"Fast there's a lever here and from the sounds of it the corridor of swinging-death-blades is through that door." Morlia points to an iron door across the room from where you entered it.

"So pull the lever and let's get out of here." You tell her.

"It's a massive great lump of metal! You pull the lever!" Diana grabs the paintbrush and you sigh before doing as Morlia ordered.

When you exit the ruin it's late afternoon, dusk is not very far away based on the orange red shade just at the horizon.

[ ] Back to Kvatch to sell Loot
-[ ] What do/talk about

[ ] Find a camping spot
-[ ] What do/talk about

[ ] Forward March
-[ ] What do/talk about

And we live again! distractions are distracting don't you know. Also, it's very, very unlikely either of us will abandon quest without letting you guys know. Feel free to remind us now and then that this does exist though. It does seem to get results after all.