Love on an Adventure

[ladys_night]

LOVE ON AN ADVENTURE meme Lucky you. For a while, you get to eschew a normal life and see life past your door; you're going on a quest! It could be for personal reasons, for fun, for profit, or to save the world as you know it. In all likelihood, it's the latter, given the natural order of things, but hopefully it's not. Whatever the case may be, you won't be going it alone, however. Whether it's just you and a partner or a true fellowship, you've got people to back you up. You may not all start out as the best of friends, that's true - still, the fires of potential life or death scenarios or the threat of losing your booty draw you closer together, and a friendship forms. With one member of your party, more than friendship grows between you. But wait, you have to defeat the dark lord, find the oldest wand, fight evil by moonlight, create a giant robot, or any other number of tasks. There's no time for this sort of nonsense! Actually, you may push them away because of the mission or due to past wounds that tie into said mission. Maybe, though, you can steal moments to get closer, let a romance blossom...or more. HOW to PLAY Comment with your character, preferences, and any other info - ie, keep it PG, etc. Even though I used a fantasy picture, don't feel constrained! In Harry Potter, they have to find a wand, in Supernatural, the Colt, in Avatar, they have to fight the Fire Lord, etc. Feel free to AU your character or include information about them. Reply to others.

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[moonandstar]

Garyn manages to avoid running away from the site. But he does walk at a very brisk pace. Once they've put a comfortable amount of distance between themselves and the Earth Stone, he finally slows to pull up beside Vanyel.

"I've visited these stones before," he says. "They're very important to the Skaal people who live on the northern half of the island. If there aren't any answers in the Temple, I can guide you to their village, assuming it's still in the same place."

He turns to look at him directly.

"I'm assuming you don't object my accompanying you until this business is seen through."

[drehnifusbahi]

He notices, though he doesn't say anything about it for the moment. It's filed away, along with Garyn's reaction to Neloth's presence and the name Nerevar Redoran.

It seems a good, sensible plan, and he nods.

"No, I have no objections." Not least because Garyn's knowledge of the land and the people is already proving invaluable.

He isn't sure, precisely, how long it would take him to even find the standing stones if he had to go it alone.

[moonandstar]

"Good," he says.

He extends a hand.

"Call me Garyn."

[drehnifusbahi]

"It's a pleasure, Garyn," he replies, shaking that outstretched hand. "Call me Vanyel."

Then he starts walking again - the sooner they reach Miraak's temple, the better.

[ooc: What do you think? Skip over the hike there and pick up as they approach the temple?]

[moonandstar]

They pass through Raven Rock - a Redoran town now. He supposes it makes sense. Thankfully no one seems to recognize him there, and their passage through is swift.

The dust and ash have formed dunes and hills that weren't present on Solstheim before. But the sun is still in the same place. So, too, is Brodir Grove, which they skirt carefully around.

There's no mistaking the Temple when they arrive - an enormous edifice that seems less to be built to around it and more like it's swallowed it entirely. The chanting worker drones would be enough to erase any remaining doubt.

[drehnifusbahi]

His attention is caught by the dragon bones littering the grounds - signs of Miraak's prowess in battle, perhaps. Or a sign of his power over dragons.

The only real difference with these chanting workers is that, while the ones at the Earth Stone were a mixed group of guards and citizens, probably from Raven Rock... these are all dressed in hide or iron armor, much like the Nords he's more familiar with.

There's also a blonde young woman who isn't hypnotized, trying in vain to awaken her... friends? from their chanting and their labor.

[moonandstar]

The woman is hovering over one of the laborers, as closely as she dares as she makes her futile exhortations.

"Oslaf, please! We must leave this place!"

Garyn descends the steps in front of her. "I don't think he can hear you, I'm afraid."

She turns to face them, narrowing her eyes. "And I suppose you would know? What brings you to this place? Why are you here?"

Garyn gestures to the temple around them. "I should think that's obvious. The same reason as you."

Her stance and expression shift, as if to acknowledge that this is a fair response. "I am Frea of the Skaal. I am here to either save my people, or avenge them."

"From whatever curse is corrupting these Stones and this land," Garyn says. "Does your shaman know what could have caused this?"

Frea raises an eyebrow, almost smiling for a moment. It's not often an outsider knows even that much of the ways of the Skaal.

"My father Storn is our shaman," she says. "He says Miraak has returned to Solstheim, but that is impossible."

[drehnifusbahi]

"I wouldn't say 'impossible.' He did arrange to have me killed - evidently from beyond the grave."

Both Frea's eyebrows go up, the only sign she gives of being at all surprised by that statement. "Then you have as much reason as I to see what lies beneath us. Let us go," and she looks at both of them as she says that. "There is nothing more I can do here; the Tree Stone and my friends are beyond my help for now. We need to find a way into the temple below."

Vanyel nods his agreement and steps away to start looking for some sign of entrance, but he doesn't go far. Not yet. "What do you know about Miraak?"

"His story is as old as Solstheim itself," she replies. "He served the dragons before their fall from power, as most did. A priest in their order. But unlike most, he turned against them. The stories say he tried to claim Solstheim for himself, and the dragons destroyed him for it-"

There might or might not have been more to the story; they don't get to find out. Frea is interrupted by a sudden shout of "Found them!"

A pair of cultists descend on the trio, wearing masks and robes similar -though simpler and of lower quality- to what the apparition from earlier wore. One is slinging fire spells, the other frost.

Vanyel quickly casts a Steadfast Ward, and retaliates with a lightning spell the first chance he gets.

[moonandstar]

Garyn focuses on one of the rings on his left hand, summoning a bound Daedric tower shield. After waiting for Vanyel's spell, he charges them, advancing with sword drawn behind his shield.

He is upon them far sooner than any reasonable person would estimate.

[drehnifusbahi]

The lightning injures one, who stumbles to the side - right into what ends up being Garyn's path. The other gets a mild shock at best, but it distracts him and leaves him unable to retaliate in time as Frea runs up on him with both war axes at the ready. Both cultists continue fling spells, even at close range.

Once again, in the corner of his mind not taken up by battle, he notes Garyn's unusual speed.

[moonandstar]

The shield slams into the cultist first - there's an audible crack as his skull fractures. Garyn swings his sword. His head tumbles and disappears around the edge of a twisting ramp.

Garyn nods in its direction. "I'd say the way forward looks clear."

[drehnifusbahi]

Frea makes quick work of the other -one quick flash of the two war axes and he's also missing his head- and she heads toward the ramp with a brief prayer of thanks to the All-Maker, with Vanyel trailing behind.

The door at the end of the ramp leads into a long, roughly-cut hallway, dotted with open doorways. Vanyel casts another spell, and a path of blue light appears before them. "That's the route we'll want to follow," he says.

[moonandstar]

"Hmm. Wish I knew that one."

Alas, he had to make do without even a compass or fast travel.

He follows the path ahead, walking abreast of Frea and Vanyel. The passage is dimly lit, and smells of dust and burnt flesh.

Garyn glances through the side portal to the right. There is a small chamber, with iron-barred cages hanging from the ceiling atop a still-lit brazier. In the cages lie what were once men. Or perhaps women. There's not enough left to tell.

"They've been busy down here," Garyn says, audibly disgusted. "About time we put a stop to that."

[drehnifusbahi]

Vanyel had ducked into one of the other side rooms, rustling around for usable supplies (since the cultists had apparently set up housekeeping in the temple, it seems reasonable to presume they'd have some).

He turns up a few healing and stamina potions, but not much else of use.

But when Garyn speaks, he comes to peer into the room the Dunmer found - and bows his head. It's not the first such scene he's stumbled across, but he doubts he'll ever get used to it.

"Agreed," he says, as Frea says a quiet prayer for the dead.

[moonandstar]

In his younger days, he may have been rummaging there with him. He'd acquired much of his fortune in dungeons much like these, filled with ancient treasure. He has little use for it now.

They make their way down a rough-hewn flight of stairs, worn by a partial cave-in. Around the bend, in the next corridor, Garyn can hear whispers.

"They must be around here somewhere. Find them."

Somehow they were expected. He presses against the side of the corridor with his sword drawn.

[drehnifusbahi]

In any other situation, perhaps he'd be looking for gold or things worth selling as well as supplies - it's how he's made a great deal of his own money, since arriving in Skyrim. But at the moment they have more pressing concerns, so he tucks the potions away and follows Garyn's lead.

When they hear the whispers, Frea's hand creeps toward her belt and the stahlrim war axe hanging there. Vanyel grabs her arm, stopping her, and shakes his head.

He slides his crossbow off his back, loads it, and leans around the corner - the cultists haven't quite rounded it yet, but one is peering around, head and chest visible.

It's enough.

The crossbow bolt lodges in the cultist's throat and he falls. The second cultists calls "Who's there!? Show yourself!" and rushes around the bend.

[moonandstar]

It perhaps should be less surprising than it is that the members of an all-consuming death cult would demonstrate little of what common folk would call prudence. Nonetheless, Garyn is grateful for the blunder.

The cultist catches a boot to the ribcage which sends him sprawling. Finishing him off is a manner of a simple thrust.

[drehnifusbahi]

The cultists aren't offered the prayers their victims got. They don't even rate a second glance.

The hall curves, opens onto a small room with a pressure plate near the entrance. There are doorways off to the left and right as well - they look to lead to small rooms with nothing in them but sarcophagi, but Vanyel casts his spell again just to be safe.

The glowing path does indeed stay straight, and Vanyel steps carefully around the pressure plate to follow it. He gives the sarcophagi an uneasy glance as he passes them, half-expecting draugr to jump out of them.

[moonandstar]

Garyn knows well enough to watch his feet. He sees Vanyel tiptoe around the pad, and he follows. The traps in Morrowind were seldom so elaborate as this, but he still knows one when he sees it.

As it happens, Vanyel's expectations are precisely met - a draugr jumps out of one of the two sarcophagi in the small chamber.

[drehnifusbahi]

Three years crawling through Nordic ruins has instilled a certain reaction to the sound of a stone sarcophagus lid hitting the stone floor - namely, turn and fire.

He loads a slightly different crossbow bolt than the sort he used before, and the draugr takes the bolt to the eye before it's gone two steps from its coffin. And if the bolt itself weren't enough, it explodes upon contact, lighting the draugr on fire.

As the saying goes, there's no kill like overkill. Especially not where draugr are concerned.

[moonandstar]

Garyn has been in his share of tombs himself. But his head has scarcely turned before the draugr has already disintegrated. He nods at Vanyel, acknowledging the shot.

They make their way deeper into the temple. The winding passage is marked by pressure plates and traps. They skirt around these until they get to an iron portcullis.

"They certainly put a lot of work into building this place," Garyn says.

Frea reaches for the switch. "Miraak was trying to take power here, and protect himself in the process."

The gate rises, and opens to a vast chamber, ringed by a balcony. In the center, hanging from ceiling, are four more braziers, and several cages filled with human and inhuman remains. The same torture chamber as before - only on a much grander scale.

Frea shakes her head. "I do not wish to imagine the kinds of things that happened in this chamber," she says. "Who were the poor souls trapped in these cages? What tortures did they suffer at Miraak's hands? Was it in service to the dragons, or for his own purposes?"

"I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough," Garyn says.

[drehnifusbahi]

"The dragons would have eaten these poor souls and had done with it," Vanyel replies. While they can be plenty destructive, and the deaths they inflict are rarely quick and painless... he's never heard of a dragon actively torturing it's prey.

He scans the rest of the room, noting what seem to be more sarcophagi on the lowest level and a balcony with a throne on it - where Miraak sat to watch the proceedings, no doubt.

There's a set of stairs off to the right that might have led to the balcony, but the ones leading up have been destroyed. All that remains is a landing and a set of mostly intact stairs leading down to the floor below the cages. Vanyel heads toward them, casting Clairvoyance once more.

The blue glow leads down the stairs and follows the curve of the room; Vanyel dismisses the spell and heads down the stairs.

[moonandstar]

A pair of draugr emerge as they round the bend of the staircase. The larger of the two lunges at Garyn. He crouches and sidesteps its thrust. Then, with his left hand, he grabs its forearm and tosses him over his shoulder, over the balcony and into the bottom of the chamber several stories below.

[drehnifusbahi]

Meanwhile, Vanyel engages the second one, laying into it with Dawnbreaker. Then comes the sound of running footsteps, and someone flings a frost spell their way - seems there are cultists on this level as well as draugr.

[moonandstar]

Garyn summons the bound shield again and focuses his full momentum into a controlled shoulder charge. Once they're at his distance, their spells will be a lot less useful.