MacabreFox

Formaroth {Battle for The Throne} - Now Recruiting

Still open, and still recruiting.

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

@gcold
I noticed the character roster, and I know Sevine is the only woman so far, but that 1.5.... Is that .5 our cross-dresser?

Formaroth: Battle for the Throne

Miserth Keep - Castle Dungeons

It was on her way back to her chamber room when Aurelia decided to visit Claus Rotstein, where he awaited judgement in the castle dungeons. She turned about on the heel of her boot, and proceeded down the main hall, and took a left turn, heading into a smaller stone room, that had a winding, spiral staircase leading below to the dungeons. As she descended into the underground world beneath Miserth Keep, Aurelia wondered truly what this man, and his mercenary company was about.

Once reaching the landing below, Aurelia entered the jailers room, where a great, iron wrought gate stood, the jailer himself seated at a desk in front of the gate.

"Hello milady, how can I help you?" The jailer sat up immediately, he had been caught dozing off on the job, though Aurelia said nothing.

"Hello jailer, I wish to visit one of the prisoners. A Claus Rotstein, he was brought in yesterday I believe?" Replied Aurelia, with an air of officiality in her voice.

"Ah yes, right you are, he's in the second level, last cell on the right. Would you like for me to escort you?" Offered the jailer, trying his best to be helpful.

"I would appreciate it if you would, I wouldn't want to lose my way down there." Aurelia graciously accepted the offer, and waited for him to open the iron gate. She watched as he rose from his chair, and selected a key off his key ring, and let the gate swing open with a giant creak.

"Follow me please." The jailer grabbed a torch, already aflame, and proceeded into the depths of the dungeons. They wandered down past several blocks of cells before ascending to the second level of the dungeons.
Occasionally, Aurelia peered into a few cells, looking at the miscreants locked away inside. It didn't take long for them to reach the cell Claus was in. The jailer stood before the cell, holding the torchlight for her.

Aurelia neared the cell and called out into the darkness, "Claus Rotstein?"

Claus was surprised to hear a voice call out to him, even more so for it to be a woman's voice.

He quickly sat up from his brutish seat and walked into the torchlight at the cell door.
Claus rubbed his eyes, not used to the light and studied his visitors, the jailer and a finely dressed woman, probably a noble he decided.

"Greetings milady and sir jailer, I'd offer you a seat and some drinks, but I seem to have run out." Claus' humor was as dry as ever, yet the jailer just met his gaze with a disappointed look.

The mercenary captain stepped forward from the darkness and into the torchlight. Aurelia could see that he was a tall man, with a large scar across his face, with dark hair, she couldn't tell the distinct colour, be it black or brown, and as she peered at him through the iron bars, she could tell that he had blue eyes.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Aurelia Vyncetta, High Magister of the royal court. I am to preside over your trial, come next morn. Normally, this would fall under Alexander's jurisdiction as he is the Advisor of Law here; however, he already has several cases to deal with tomorrow, and I am expected to give you a fair trial. I wanted to hear the words from your very mouth. Claus Rotstein, I know that you are captain of a mercenary group of men, known as the Steel Fist. Can you please tell me as to why your men and you, have come to Nyhem?" She stood inches away from the iron bars that separated Claus and her, her hands clasped in front of her navy blue and silver-trimmed gown. She was not intimidated by any man, by any means.

Claus eyed the woman before him, trying to make sense of her before returning to a more regular conversation.

"You wonder why we have come to Nyhem? It's rather simple really, we have returned from a long contract working for the elves, specifics are not necessary, and now we have after seven years finally returned home. Why Nyhem in particular? Most of my men hail from here or the surrounding lands. I myself was born in the neighboring lands to the east." Claus response was direct, and without fuss, and it was like he was sighing.

"The important people in this town seem to be completely unbeknownst to the fact that soldiers like to get home and have a massive party. If we were here to do some unsavory act the city of Nyhem would at the moment see siege towers being built outside effective archery range and sappers would begin the task of undermining the walls. True, the city's harbor makes it very resilient to sieges, therefore we would need to work fast since starving you out is not an option."
Claus stare was blank, it had lost its humor, and he was simply stating what he saw as facts. The jailer was visibly getting a bit tense. Claus held an almost unblinking eye contact with Aurelia.

Aurelia listened respectfully to the man behind the iron bars, her face only changing when she caught note of the tone of his voice, he sounded as if he had had to explain himself before. Yet, she only felt relief that he did not badger her with taunts or insults for having him thrown in the dungeons.

"I understand. You'll have to forgive us, as we only lost our King but days ago. We are very tense here within in the city, as we are not sure who will be the next King or Queen. Seeing such fanfare would make the citizens feel unease at your company's unexplained presence. The people of Nyhem have already come with questions as to why there is such a large group of militaristic men assembling in our town square. We presumed that you were an ally to one of the other Houses, that was declaring an act of war." She paused and continued her gaze, unwavering, as she collected her thoughts before speaking again.

"I will still have to bring you to trial in the morning, Claus. There is one question I do have before I go. We will need to increase castle security within the next two weeks, a fortnight or so, for all of the arriving lords and ladies. Your company has come at a time, where we may need your services, if you had a price...what would it be?"

Aurelia knew she was taking a chance by asking him such a question, but she needed him to cooperate, especially since he had a large group of men under his command. If anything were to go awry in the coming days when the other House lords and ladies arrived, Claus and his men would be beneficial to have around. Of course she would still have to ask Duncan for permission since he was now acting Regent King. She waited for his response, the tension hung between them, as Aurelia refused to look away.

"You want to employ the Steel Fist?" Claus was genuinely surprised and half laughed the next sentence.

"Typical lords, always paranoid..." Claus shook his head and then met Aurelia's gaze.

"Since I am in charge of a rather large band of very skilled troops, I happen to be able to name their prize as I see fit, and seeing that you miss are my prosecutor in my upcoming trial...." It seemed that Claus would come up with some completely unreasonable proposal after his smug statement.

"The typical fee will be needed, men who work expect payment, so 50 gold, or 5000 silver is only fair, but seeing that I want to make a good impression, we can knock of 100 silver, then of course I'd much prefer a trial in my favor, especially since I can't lead my men in protecting all the good lords if I'm locked up in a dungeon." He was grinning now.

"Oh, and he gets set free." Claus pointed at his trooper in the corner, now toppled over in an even more impressively uncomfortable looking posture.

A loud fart was heard from the rear of the cell.

"Excuse my company, there are more reasons than the obvious that I want to leave this cell." Claus stated, he seemed in a joking mood, perhaps he enjoyed grim humor?

She listened all the while without a word escaping her lips, the captain of the Steel Fist appeared to be very certain of himself, though she said nothing. She considered his words but could only smile in response.

"I will consider your proposal. However, your trial shall be a fair and just one, I will promise you that. I will not be deceitful in the eyes of the law, so I will not change any decision I make, unless of course, we find nothing to charge you with. If you are not hiding some secret, or something more dire, which I hope that you're not for your sake, then we would be more than happy to pay your men for their work. We would employ our own, trusted guardsmen, but most have been gathered and redistributed for more useful purposes at this time. And it's much easier to employ a group of well trained mercenaries for a brief period of time. I will consult with the Regent King after your trial tomorrow morn, and we will decide as a whole if we will hire your men, or if we'll cast your entire company into the depths that are these dungeons." So saying, Aurelia gave a pitiful sigh and brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen out of place.

"I hope you have nothing to hide for your sake Claus Rotstein, is there anything else you wish to say, or ask, before I return upstairs?" She wrapped one hand around the iron bar of his cell and peered in at him closer, studying him very closely, as if trying to discover all of his secrets now.

Claus Rotstein grasped a bar with his left hand, close to Aurelia's, and leaned in. Studying the woman before him.

"Oh I have many things that are hidden, but none that should keep me in a dungeon." He smiled wryly, in an untrustworthy kinda way.

"The only thing I'd like to ask for really at the moment is that I and my man here be kept in a guarded room instead of this dungeon, I promise I won't try anything stupid, and I have my men under control." Claus said seriously, he seemed to change his outward mood all the time.

Her brows furrowed at the captain's attempt to intimidate her. She let it run off her back like cool water, as she remained where she stood.

"We shall see when tomorrow comes. For the time being, I will have you transferred to one of our upper cells. Your man can stay here for another night, I'm certain that won't be a problem, especially if you are innocent as you say." With that Aurelia took a step back from his cell and motioned for the jailer to follow her.

As she started down the dungeon corridor, Aurelia called out,
"I will see you in the morning Claus! Don't worry, we'll have you moved to your new cell shortly." Her voice echoed off the stone walls, the torchlight held by the jailer growing ever faint as they moved up the spiral staircase.

Claus waved to Aurelia by wiggling his fingers and smiling happily, watching the swaying motions of Aurelia's clothing disappear around a corner, he then leaned against the barred door for a while.

That was all the fun he would have in a long while, at least he would have a nice bed. He looked over at the crossbowman from his company.

Too bad he would be here with this brute and.... his thinking was interrupted by a loud fart, followed by a burp and the unmistakable sound of the scratching of a man's arse. Claus shook his head.

Claus went over to his man and kicked his knee, not hard, just to wake him up.

"Ey, no sleeping on the job." Claus muttered, the man hastily got up after a bit of grunting.

"I wasn't sleeping... sir...." Claus looked at the worst lie he had ever heard was priceless, and the man in front of him knew full well that Claus, not in the tiniest sense, believed him.

"You need to drink less, also, you were not actually sleeping on the job... since we're in prison. So you get away this time." Claus tried to tell him seriously, but a hidden smirk betrayed his thoughts.

"I need someone with more brains than a snoring pillow or a fat fart to speak to, I'm going stir crazy. Care to help me out with that?" Claus gestured to the other cellmates while speaking his mind.

"Sure boss, I can help ya out." The man smiled and did a half assed salute.

The time was spent bantering and trying to hit the brute's ear with tiny pebbles, tragically Claus realised he'd spent days in far less enjoyable recreation than this.

{Collab by ~ @Klomster@MacabreFox}

Formaroth: Battle for the Throne

@MacabreFox I fixed the part you didn't like, i hope its more open now.

And as soon as some simple editing is done, the collab will be done.
Some juicy mano o mano action in that one :P

Oh, and i'll just make it more official, if i ever seem to want to take control of a characters actions and/or feelings, i might not be considering it such. And i don't want to make people feel like i'm trying to god-mod or anything. I have asperger and at times just act how i think a thing should be done.
Like when i dropped in an response from fox's character i thought was an appropriate one, i was wrong, and fox was a bit upset.

Just tell me, and i'll try to fix it.
I'm not unreasonable :)

@Klomster

I appreciate the sincerity @Klomster (:, no hard feelings on my part.

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

<Snipped quote by MacabreFox>

Awesome. Just one thing, the main attack starts 4 hours after. Only the scouts are mobilizing within 30 minutes.

Also, Sevine can do some short conversations with Edith. No need for permission unless it's extended dialog.

@gcold

Sorry I misread that, I'll get it fixed.

And I'll add in some small chit chat between the two (:

--
Edited.

Formaroth: Battle for the Throne

I'm feeling quite good about this. I feel like things will get very interesting very fast from this point forward, especially once we hit the initial part of intrigue and direct politics. I have wayyyy too much fun with the whole 'setting the stage' part of these roleplays that I often neglect to actually look forward xD

@PhoenixWhite

What a splendid post! I will say this, the red coloring is a bit hard to make out against the black background, I would suggest changing the colour to something more easy to read.

@Klomster and I have made some serious head-way in our collab, and I expect it to be up soon, we have some very interesting things beginning to happen now.

@TheDuncanMorgan Will there be a timeskip to the arrival of the other Houses?

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

Posted. Hope that is acceptable ^.^'

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

Dawn

The smell of wet dew filled the dreaming huntress's nose as she slowly awoke to the chill of the morning air, her blanket draped across her shoulders. Opening her eyes, Sevine Varg-t'uk took in her surroundings as she recalled where she was. Still alive, and with the mercenary company under the command of the Dragonborn. She had reached the encampment just days before, and had reacted in surprise upon seeing her old childhood friend amongst the other soldiers, Edith Bright-Wings. The blonde maiden, just a smidge taller than herself, and Sevine had grown up together in Falkreath. She hadn't seen Edith since the war, and couldn't be happier to see her again. However, they hardly had time to exchange a few hellos, before Sevine had gone off on patrol.

The dawn patrol left as soon as the east horizon had begun to turn red, with the sun beginning to slowly rise. Their party consisted of 4 soldiers, Sevine serving as an archer for the group, two men who wielded iron shorts words, and one other man with a bow and war hammer. The early trek down to the main road, then across to an old hunting path had filled her with vigor at the idea of encountering enemies this early on.

The morning sun rose ever higher, shinning precious rays of light upon the world, dispelling the darkness that once belonged to the night. The huntress' blood-colored hair glistened like a dancing fire in the light of the sun as she moved through a field, her bow ready with an arrow notched. Her evergreen eyes scanned their surroundings continuously for any signs of warning or danger. She let her mouth hang open, silent breaths of ghostly vapor escaped from betwixt her lips.

The patrol ended with no reports of seeing their enemies about three hours later, as they returned to the camp. Sevine departed from the group and went to where she had stashed her gear by her bedroll. She knelt in the dirt and rummaged through her leather rucksack, looking for her book, The Black Arrow, Volume 2. She had read the book countless times, as the book bore the signs of wear and tear from being read over, and over again; the pages were thin at the corners, and somewhat smooth, the occasional stain of tea appeared on a page or two, even a note written in charcoal could be found within.

Sitting upon her bedroll, Sevine cracked open her favorite book and began to read it from the beginning. There was never a better time to brush up on her archery skills, or even to read an entertaining tale on such tedious days.

"Sevine Varg-t'uk! I knew I had seen your head of hair about the camp. It's been a while since I have laid mine own eyes upon you. How do you fare? And of your sister too?" Edith asked, she had a whole hearted smile upon her face. Sevine lept to her feet and happily embraced her old friend.

"Aye! I could say the same about you, Edith! Ah, I am well, my sister Liliana, is just married to that boy from town, Lodjolf Thorn-Raker." Sevine released her friend as she took a step back from her.

"You are truly a sight for sore eyes, Sevine. Your father would be proud of what you have become." Edith knew that Agnar had passed away, just years ago.

"Aye, that is true." Her voice faltered, as she went again, for another embrace, hugs were not common-place for Sevine, but in times like these, Sevine would not deny the opportunity for one.

"Let me be on my way, I have some work to finish up, and I'll let you get back to your book." Edith stepped back and patted Sevine emphatically on the shoulder.

"Of course, I'm certain I will see you around camp more, blessings of Mara upon you." Sevine smiled once more as Edith embrace her again, this time departing shortly after.

The hours passed before she spotted a familiar looking man pass by, Jorwen Red-Bear, she wondered where he was going, but continued to read her book. In the back of her mind, Sevine recalled a time during the Civil War, just a few years back, when Jorwen had graciously mended the hem of her dress sleeve. She thanked him repeatedly, but had felt as if she hadn't repaid the generous deed in full.

Nightfall

Jerking awake, the huntress pulled the book she had been reading off her face. She had fallen asleep, and placed the book over her face to block out the light of day. Due to that, Sevine had slept through the rest of the day, and well past the evening, she imagined it to be around midnight, by the blackness of the night sky that hung above her like a velvet curtain sparkling with diamonds that were the stars themselves.

"Listen up, you pitiful bunch of skeever shits!" Thundered Dumhuvud Cat-Kicker, a Nordic man dressed head-to-toe in steel armor, as he stood upon some crates. Sevine rose from her bedroll and moved closer to where the other mercenaries had gathered.

As Dumhuvud called for everyone to pay attention, and hear to Ashav out, Sevine couldn't help but to think back to the Civil War, where she had first lain eyes upon Cat-Kicker, on the battlefields on a few occasions. She still remembered as a fellow comrade explained how he earned his surname, literally kicking a Khajiit to death.

Listening on, Sevine discovered that they would soon be leaving to spring an attack on the redoubt they were watching over the past few days. Instantaneously, her heart beat quickened at the mere thought of an encounter during the night, if they pulled this off right, they would have the element of surprise.

Three people volunteered to be scouts, an Altmer, an Argonian, and Jorwen himself. Grasping at her amulet of Mara, tucked inside her armor, Sevine closed her eyes and offered up a prayer for her fellow comrade, hoping for a safe return, for all of them. She knew that being a scout, they ran the risk of being taken down first by the Forsworn. The rest of them would be heading out in 4 hours to bring on the main attack. Once Ashav finished speaking, Sevine departed to get ready.

She checked every strap on her leather armor, loosened up all of her muscles thru quick exercises, and counted all of her arrows before slinging her quiver across her shoulder, where it lay draped across her back. Checking her bowstring, with a twang of her fingers, Sevine determined it to be satisfactory. Sheathing her war axe at her hip, Sevine stared questionably down at her wooden shield. She had left it behind countless times, and had done just well with her axe and bow, yet Sevine recalled the times where her shield had saved her life from many a sword swing, or arrow shot. Reluctantly, the huntress decided it would be best to bring it with her, just in case she wasn't going to use her bow as much.

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

I'll have an introductory post up very soon, by the end of the night or sometime tomorrow.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@MacabreFox You forgot the WD-40.

@Monochromatic Rainbow

Yes that too! x)