[img]http://i.imgur.com/o0D4D.jpg[/img]

An old and experienced witchhunter on a quest for a powerful artifact that promises him his biggest payout yet, and an aspiring witchhunter on a quest for revenge against a necromancer that killed her mother.  These two travelers find themselves in each other's company and become unlikely partners as they journey toward the cold and war-torn land of Skyrim, which is trapped in the thick of the Stormcloak Rebellion and the return of the dragons.  This is not a tale of heroes driving back ancient, apocalyptic evil.  This is the story of an unlikely troop of adventurers that find themselves pitted against an adversarial force that, while not a harbinger of the end times, is still powerful enough to cause major trouble in the corner of the world it occupies.

This is meant to be a fun experience of a group of adventurers, united by paralleling interests or directions, that must learn to work together and overcome the challenges of a province that will only get darker and sadder as events progress.

The necromancer - a student of Mannimarco's style (Duke of Worms, we'll call him), supported by seven lords and the usual undead servants such people keep, will be the main villain.  There will be two lairs for him: a false one out in remote wilderness (which will be reached first), and the real hidden-in-plain-sight lair.


Just a few quick clarifications on how the magic and other stuff will work for this:

This is not meant to be a game simulation, where the actual game's mechanics control everything that happens.

With Conjuration, summoning weapons has changed a bit in Skyrim from earlier titles -- earlier games rendered the gear as solid, Daedric-appearing objects while Skyrim renders them as pinkish-purple, ethereal entities.  Taking some creative license with this, we have established that the longevity and usefulness of summoned weapons and armor is relative to how solid they appear.  For example, a novice conjurer may only be able to summon a very transparent sword that will probably not be very strong or sharp; as he gains experience, he will be able to conjure swords that become more opaque, hold sharper edges for longer, and resist breakage better.  Concentration also factors in.  A novice conjurer will likely have to devote more effort to concentrating and keeping his sword manifested, meaning that if he is distracted, or if he is surprised and hastily conjures one, it may become ethereal and wispy to the point that it passes harmlessly through the target -- or at least does not do any significant damage upon striking it.

As for fighting special enemies (like vampires and undead)...  Ethereal beings are subjected to Oblivion-style rules: silver, Daedric, and enchanted only.  Even high-quality unenchanted items, like ebony, will not work unless enchanted.  Physical beings may be harmed by any sort of weapon, but only silver, Daedric, and enchanted gear will inflict lasting injuries (e. g.: iron mace strikes a vampire in the chest, ribs may get broken and bruising may occur, but would very quickly heal -- silver mace strikes a vampire in the ribs, those same injures would last and take roughly the same amount of time to heal as they would with a normal mortal).

Travel time is calculated according to the map and distances found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/ui64h/tamriels_size_in_square_miles/#bottom-comments

Bandits, wildlife, and other nuisances are not suicidal homing missiles that instantly attack anything that wanders a little too close to their camp.  A bandit gang preying on travelers on a road should have the smarts to gauge whether or not they're equipped to handle something more than defenseless commoners.