"Dragon Priest!" erupted a loud voice, thick with the accents of the far East, "We should be so lucky. I've never met one, but think of what it could tell us!"
Somewhat alarmingly, the head and arms of Baladas Venym emerged straight up from the ground, in front of a small thicket adjacent to the tomb's entrance. Gradually more of the wizard emerged as he managed to pull himself out of what was apparently a partially concealed hole in the rocky ground, barely big enough for a man- or dunmer- to crawl through.
"Air vents!" he explained as he stood, shaking dust and cobwebs from his battered robes, "Ground around these tombs is always thick with air vents. For the slaves they had build them, I suppose. Not all of them always got filled in afterwards."
The wizard offered the assembled adventurers a smile full of yellowed teeth, crimson eyes glittering in the half-light. "Thought I'd take a peek while I waited for the rest of you- do a little scouting. Not much to report, I'm afraid- unless you like spiders the size of my hand. This particular vent goes to a section that looks caved in. Hope at least some of the tomb is still standing for us. Be a shame to come out here and find a pile of rubble."
He patted his robes, as though searching for something. "Oh!" he said, leaning down and thrusting his arm into the vent he had just clambered out of, pulling his notched wooden staff out after him, "Almost forgot this."
Half-Face is going to argue to Radush and Dakgu that at least some of the wargs should get out of the castle and the encirclement while they can, so they can harry the enemy's rear while they try to storm the fort. Your sally can be a diversion to give the main warg force some breathing room and get out of the bunny's human's tightening encirclement? Just a thought.
Hmm, by the way, someone could take the initiative to point Nargesh in the right direction. As long as it's not in to rude a manner she'd likely oblige. ^^
Also I should get on relationship/how she feels about others.
Half-Face wants her to help defend the breach in the wall with his pikes. See the last section of my IC post.
Also, @everyone, happy to collaborate with anyone who wants to!
Name: Baladas Venym Age: 201 Gender: Male Race: Dunmer
Appearance: Tall, slim, with darker skin than the typical Dunmer, and the angular features and crimson eyes of his race. His nose is arched crooked from repeated breaks, and his face marked by numerous scars, the most prominent of which travels from his hairline to his chin on the left side of his face, notching his lip. He has a trim, short goatee, and shoulder length black hair streaked with grey. He usually wears a weather beaten, dark red robe and travel cloak the Telvanni style.
Personality: Unusual for Dunmer and sorcerers alike, Venym is cordial and personable, an person of such endless verbosity that he frequently comes across as slightly unhinged. He has a sharp sense of humor, an encyclopedic knowledge of lore and literature, and is possessed of an almost childlike fascination with the world. He has always been a restless scholar with a taste for danger, curious and cerebral, but unwilling to spend his life in a dank library or cloistered in a fungus-tower. While he regularly courts death and is no coward, Venym is driven primarily by the desire to attain immortality. He is egocentric, arrogant, and supremely-often insanely-self confident, but at the same time has a genuine interest in other people and loves a good story and conversation. These contrasting traits make for a somewhat inconsistent character, by turns ruthless, irritable and self centered or generous and hilarious.
History:
"My story?" asked the Dunmer, sipping his brandy and offering the barmaid a crooked, yellowed smile, "I'm a wizard."
"Aye," she said with a hearty nord laugh, "And I'm Titus Mede, dark elf."
"You don't believe me?"
"No, no I do. The Skulking Cub gets wizards all the time. Hagravens and Snow elfs too. It's the favored drinking establishment of the witching community."
"I don't doubt it, given the quality of the conversation and companionship one finds here." said the Dunmer, with a sweep of his arm towards the dim, smoky tavern, crowded with half-drunk guardsman and whores. A one-eyed old man glared at him and spat into the rushes through a gap in his teeth. The elf shrugged and turned back to the barmaid. "But I wasn't lying. I am wizard, Baladas Venym of House Telvanni, in Morrowind. Pleased to meet you. We Telvanni are in a period of- ah- transition of late. Perhaps that's why you've not heard of us."
"Telvanno? I recognize the name- met a dandy once, a horrible little man with a painted-on mustache, but he wore excellent scent. Said dunmer witchdoctors made it out of giant beetles."
"See? The fame of my esteemed House precedes me."
"Well what're you doing here in Riften, Master Telvanno? Hunting beetles?"
The Dunmer laughed, gravelly and baritone. "Not quite beetles, no. A bit of contract work to fill the coffers again, then I'm off to Solstheim to meet with a very old and very esteemed acquaintance of mine."
"You travel quite a bit for a wizard, aren't you lot more the tower and library type? That or hanging off the arm of one Jarl or another."
"Yes well," said the Dunmer, "Neither politics nor traditional scholarship ever much suited me, I'm afraid, and where I'm from the two are oddly intertwined. I prefer life on the road. More interesting."
The barmaid shrugged, "Wouldn't know."
"Oh no?" asked the wizard, "That scar on your shoulder, the way you carry yourself? You're telling me you've not been on an adventure or two?"
"Not one you'd want to hear tell of, wizard." said the barmaid, suddenly cold.
Venym smirked, leaning back on his stool and taking another swig of brandy as the barmaid turned away to fill a tankard for another customer.
"Shame about the children, last night." he said, loudly but to no one in particular. The barmaid's head jerked back and she shot him a glance one part confusion, one part anger.
"Along the road south," said the wizard, "Surely you heard? Young neophytes of Mara, headed for the Temple here? Torn up, the lot. Like wolves, the guards that found them said, only worse. I'm not a believer myself, but....after a thing like that, one almost hopes the gods punish the wicked."
"Didn't hear of it." said the barmaid, turning to meet the wizard's gaze, "Sounds terrible. Mara avenges her own, though."
The dunmer drained his glass.
Everything that happened next did so very quickly. The barmaid snarled, and in doing so somehow changed. She launched herself at the dunmer, and the boozy denizens of the Skulking Cub fell silent as their collective attention turned to this latest development.
The elf slipped smoothly out of the barmaid's trajectory, robes swirling around him as he rolled into a half crouch. The barmaid crashed into his empty stool, thrashing as she tried to right herself. Now the changes were more pronounced. Black fur. White eyes. Fangs and claws.
Someone in the bar called for Talos to save them. A stampede began for the door.
"They'll blame you, wizard," she growled, "When I've painted these walls with their blood. They'll blame the conjurer from Morrowind."
The dunmer shrugged, and the werewolf pounced- much faster than the barmaid.
A bluish flash lit up the tavern, the sound of thunder deafening in the close quarters. Torches, candles and the firepit went dark, and the following battle was only visible to those who had not managed to yet escape by a series of thunder flashes and red-gold burst of flame.
When it was over, the barmaid lay dead across her own bar, dripping blood, her features half-human, half-wolf, her hair singed and skin blacked in some places. She was cut deeply across the chest, though the blade that had made the wound was nowhere in evidence. The dunmer sat slouched at a corner table, nursing a tankard of ale. When the guards burst in, swords drawn and demanding answers, he merely handed them a scroll. A bounty, signed by the Jarl herself, for the Wolf of Darklight Tower.
“A thousand drakes,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow, to the speechless guard, “And I keep the body... for dissection and study, of course.”
Skills: Venym is a mage, accomplished in destruction and alteration. His primary scholarly interest is in necromancy and daedric magic, and he is most skilled at conjuration. Several lifetimes worth of experience in wandering Tamriel have made him a canny adventurer, with quick wits and basic survival skills in the wild.
Equipment: Dunmer robes in the Telvanni style, worn by many years of travel. An amulet of silver and volcanic glass, enchanted A plain wooden staff, engraved with Telvanni sigils. Hunting knife.
Birthsign: The Apprentice
Misc: Venym is primarily interested in this expedition as an opportunity to study Nordic draugr and the arts of ancient nordic necromancy.
"Ain't those the bunnies what paid us to crack this place?" asked Ugore, gesturing at the human formations maneuvering in the distance.
"Aye," growled Half-Face, leaning against the crumbling parapet, "So they are."
"Seems a funny way of fighting a war," said Ugore.
"Pinkskins have a knack for scheming themselves stupid," said Half-Face, taking a swig from a dented hip-flask. Black orcish liquor seeped between the exposed fangs of his scarred face, dripping into his furs. "They ain't angling for a siege, neither. They'll try to storm us."
"More of 'em than us by my eye," said Ugore, "Lots more."
Half-Face shrugged, "We got the ground. And anyway, we've got our orders straight from the Eye Drinker. We're holding this place, so I want the Tally-Man and Nailtooth's pikes formed up proper at the gateway. Bazgu and One Ear can cover the breach in the western wall. The pinkskins come in, they're comin' in to a wall of pikes. Jagath's swords and bows will be on the walls, so good luck to the stupid pinks what try to come in by ladders, but I want you to hold your tuskers back, keep 'em by the stables, 'case things get sticky up here you can rush 'em in and throw the bunnies back down."
"And you?"
"I'll have my best orcs out of the fightin, keepin' an eye on the breach and the gateway- those're our weakest spots. I'll send 'em in if things go sour. I asked Jagath to lend us Tall Shadow for to help us there, but who knows if his royal majesty will condescend to donate the bitch to us."
"Conde-what?"
Half-Face snorted, "Just get your tuskers where I want 'em, make sure the other lads have their boys ready for some ugly work."
"Where're you goin?"
The commander gave his underling an appraising glare, the right side of his face snarling, the left fixed in it's permanent, ravaged sneer.
Ugore took a step back, "I just meant-"
"To consult the witch," growled Half Face, "Then to talk to the Warlord about the Elf-Scalper and his warg-tuskers. I got somethin' ugly in mind."
Baladas Venym, @Flagg. Baladas isn't particularly unique, nor does his skillset add anything special to our party (we already have a conjurer), but the story in the History won me over. I can't reject writing like that! Welcome.
Yeah I'm like the worst at CSes, hopefully I can me him a bit more unique and compelling a character IC. Glad to be part of this tho!
What is your favorite Elder Scrolls game? Morrowind. Probably my favorite game of all time. Skyrim was fun to play and beautifully designed, but the story was silly. None of the glorious weirdness or ambiguity of Morrowind.
What is your favorite Elder Scrolls race? Dunmer.
What is your favorite Elder Scrolls character or NPC from the games? Neloth.
Who is your daddy, and what does he do? Vader, hunts rebels.
And last but not least, what is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Coffee, of course.
Alright, I'll give in to temptation and throw my hat in the ring. The CS below is a WIP- need to fill out the history, will try to do so tonight.
Name: Baladas Venym Age: 201 Gender: Male Race: Dunmer
Appearance: Tall, slim, with darker skin than the typical Dunmer, and the angular features and crimson eyes of his race. His nose is arched crooked from repeated breaks, and his face marked by numerous scars, the most prominent of which travels from his hairline to his chin on the left side of his face, notching his lip. He has a trim, short goatee, and shoulder length black hair streaked with grey. He usually wears a weather beaten, dark red robe and travel cloak the Telvanni style.
Personality: Unusual for Dunmer and sorcerers alike, Venym is cordial and personable, an person of such endless verbosity that he frequently comes across as slightly unhinged. He has a sharp sense of humor, an encyclopedic knowledge of lore and literature, and is possessed of an almost childlike fascination with the world. He has always been a restless scholar with a taste for danger, curious and cerebral, but unwilling to spend his life in a dank library or cloistered in a fungus-tower. While he regularly courts death and is no coward, Venym is driven primarily by the desire to attain immortality. He is egocentric, arrogant, and supremely-often insanely-self confident, but at the same time has a genuine interest in other people and loves a good story and conversation. These contrasting traits make for a somewhat inconsistent character, by turns ruthless, irritable and self centered or generous and hilarious.
History:
"My story?" asked the Dunmer, sipping his brandy and offering the barmaid a crooked, yellowed smile, "I'm a wizard."
"Aye," she said with a hearty nord laugh, "And I'm Titus Mede, dark elf."
"You don't believe me?"
"No, no I do. The Skulking Cub gets wizards all the time. Hagravens and Snow elfs too. It's the favored drinking establishment of the witching community."
"I don't doubt it, given the quality of the conversation and companionship one finds here." said the Dunmer, with a sweep of his arm towards the dim, smoky tavern, crowded with half-drunk guardsman and whores. A one-eyed old man glared at him and spat into the rushes through a gap in his teeth. The elf shrugged and turned back to the barmaid. "But I wasn't lying. I am wizard, Baladas Venym of House Telvanni, in Morrowind. Pleased to meet you. We Telvanni are in a period of- ah- transition of late. Perhaps that's why you've not heard of us."
"Telvanno? I recognize the name- met a dandy once, a horrible little man with a painted-on mustache, but he wore excellent scent. Said dunmer witchdoctors made it out of giant beetles."
"See? The fame of my esteemed House precedes me."
"Well what're you doing here in Riften, Master Telvanno? Hunting beetles?"
The Dunmer laughed, gravelly and baritone. "Not quite beetles, no. A bit of contract work to fill the coffers again, then I'm off to Solstheim to meet with a very old and very esteemed acquaintance of mine."
"You travel quite a bit for a wizard, aren't you lot more the tower and library type? That or hanging off the arm of one Jarl or another."
"Yes well," said the Dunmer, "Neither politics nor traditional scholarship ever much suited me, I'm afraid, and where I'm from the two are oddly intertwined. I prefer life on the road. More interesting."
The barmaid shrugged, "Wouldn't know."
"Oh no?" asked the wizard, "That scar on your shoulder, the way you carry yourself? You're telling me you've not been on an adventure or two?"
"Not one you'd want to hear tell of, wizard." said the barmaid, suddenly cold.
Venym smirked, leaning back on his stool and taking another swig of brandy as the barmaid turned away to fill a tankard for another customer.
"Shame about the children, last night." he said, loudly but to no one in particular. The barmaid's head jerked back and she shot him a glance one part confusion, one part anger.
"Along the road south," said the wizard, "Surely you heard? Young neophytes of Mara, headed for the Temple here? Torn up, the lot. Like wolves, the guards that found them said, only worse. I'm not a believer myself, but....after a thing like that, one almost hopes the gods punish the wicked."
"Didn't hear of it." said the barmaid, turning to meet the wizard's gaze, "Sounds terrible. Mara avenges her own, though."
The dunmer drained his glass.
Everything that happened next did so very quickly. The barmaid snarled, and in doing so somehow changed. She launched herself at the dunmer, and the boozy denizens of the Skulking Cub fell silent as their collective attention turned to this latest development.
The elf slipped smoothly out of the barmaid's trajectory, robes swirling around him as he rolled into a half crouch. The barmaid crashed into his empty stool, thrashing as she tried to right herself. Now the changes were more pronounced. Black fur. White eyes. Fangs and claws.
Someone in the bar called for Talos to save them. A stampede began for the door.
"They'll blame you, wizard," she growled, "When I've painted these walls with their blood. They'll blame the conjurer from Morrowind."
The dunmer shrugged, and the werewolf pounced- much faster than the barmaid.
A bluish flash lit up the tavern, the sound of thunder deafening in the close quarters. Torches, candles and the firepit went dark, and the following battle was only visible to those who had not managed to yet escape by a series of thunder flashes and red-gold burst of flame.
When it was over, the barmaid lay dead across her own bar, dripping blood, her features half-human, half-wolf, her hair singed and skin blacked in some places. She was cut deeply across the chest, though the blade that had made the wound was nowhere in evidence. The dunmer sat slouched at a corner table, nursing a tankard of ale. When the guards burst in, swords drawn and demanding answers, he merely handed them a scroll. A bounty, signed by the Jarl herself, for the Wolf of Darklight Tower.
“A thousand drakes,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow, to the speechless guard, “And I keep the body... for dissection and study, of course.”
Skills: Venym is a mage, accomplished in destruction and alteration. His primary scholarly interest is in necromancy and daedric magic, and he is most skilled at conjuration. Several lifetimes worth of experience in wandering Tamriel have made him a canny adventurer, with quick wits and basic survival skills in the wild.
Equipment: Dunmer robes in the Telvanni style, worn by many years of travel. An amulet of silver and volcanic glass, enchanted A plain wooden staff, engraved with Telvanni sigils. Hunting knife.
Birthsign: The Apprentice
Misc: Venym is primarily interested in this expedition as an opportunity to study Nordic draugr and the arts of ancient nordic necromancy.
Faction Name: The Red Fleet Faction leader(s): Ullessio Ainhydrogone Vaspite Castaigne, Prince of the Shoals, Admiral of the Red Fleet, and Captain of the Grinning King
Commodore Cassilda Xin, Captain of the Stranger Territory: Lucky Space Planet(s)/Holdings:
Khalul asteroid belt
Dagon III, uncolonized deathworld
Faction/Government Desc: WIP History: WIP
Military Capabilities: WIP
Relations with Other Factions: WIP
Faction Name: Y'Ghul Free State
Faction leader(s): Council of Five System(s): Y'Ghul
Planet(s)/Territories:
Y'Ghul
Drakes Folly
Faction/Government Desc: Anarcho-syndicalist. Y'Ghul is "ruled" by the five major mercenary bands based on the planet, as well as by various corporate interests. WIP
I love what I'm seeing so far. We need a few more people, I think so if you know anyone who might be interested let me know. I'm going to put up my NS's later today. For now, here's a piratepad where we can chat: piratepad.net/nmjH6p5xTN
