bakerstreet | Love on an Adventure

Love on an Adventure

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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Storn turns to Vanyel. "So, you have seen things, yes? My magic grows weak, and so does the barrier around our village. Time is short. Tell me what you know."

"We found a black book in Miraak's temple. I read it and... went somewhere. Miraak was there, and spoke of returning to Solstheim once his temple was rebuilt."

"The legends speak of that place. Terrible battles fought at the temple. The dragons burning it to the ground in rage. They speak also of something worse than dragons buried within. Difficult to imagine, but if true... it means what I feared has come to pass. Miraak was never truly gone, and has now returned. If you could go to this place and see him... are you like Miraak? Are you Dragonborn?"

Vanyel bows his head. "I am indeed Dragonborn."

"Then perhaps you are connected with him. The old tales say that he, too, was Dragonborn."

"What does it mean it mean, then? That we're both Dragonborn?"

"I am unsure. It may mean that you could save us, or it may mean that you could bring about our destruction."

Well, isn't that comforting.

Were this anyone else, Garyn might be inclined to make a sardonic remark about how very helpful and comforting he's being. But this is a shaman of the Skaal. If he doesn't know, it's because this is uncertain and unprecedented.

"How might we find that out?" he says. "What must he do next?"

"You must go to Saering's Watch, Dragonborn," Storn says. "Learn there the word that Miraak learned long ago, and use that knowledge on the Wind Stone. You may be able to break the hold on our people there, and free them from control."

"Can you spare one of your people to guide us?" Garyn says. "Neither of us know the way."

Storn shakes his head. "Our barrier grows weaker by the moment. We cannot spare any who maintain it."

"Saering's Watch lies on the slope of Frykte Peak," Frea says. "You have one of your maps, yes? I know how to mark one of these."

Vanyel offers up his own map, purchased shortly after his arrival in Raven Rock. "Thank you," he says, to both Frea and Storn.

Even if he's deeply unsettled by the old shaman's implication, that somehow his being here might spell doom for these people.

When Frea hands him the map back, he holds it at such an angle that Garyn can see too as he examines where the mark is in relation to the village - it's almost directly west, but given the mountainous terrain, odds that they'll find a straight path leading are vanishingly small.

Garyn gazes over Vanyel's shoulder. His brow furrows.

"I've never been to this place, but I know the Moesring Mountains," he says. "That's a much longer walk than it looks. We might not make it in time. Unless..."

Here Garyn rummages through his satchel, searching through its folds. After about a minute, he produces two ancient, yellowed scrolls. He unfurls the first, blowing the dust off to reveal the incantation in Daedric lettering:

AE GHARTOK KYNRT

Satisfied, he turns to Vanyel, offering him one of the scrolls.

"These scrolls can fly us there. Hope you're not afraid of heights."

Edited 2015-11-16 02:48 (UTC)

He's glad Garyn seems to have a solution - the trick he pulled in the temple, using Whirlwind Sprint, wouldn't work quite so well in this situation.

He studies the opened one; he can recognize the Daedric lettering for what it is, even if he can't tell what it says.

"I'm not," he confirms, beginning to unfurl the scroll in his hands. "They work like any other spell scroll, I take it?"

He's never even heard of spell that could do what Garyn is claiming these scrolls can, but he trusts him. And it's not as if they have many other options.

"It does," Garyn says. "Just pull it out and cast it. Though you're welcome to contemplate its Ehlnofex if you wish."

He pauses, then hands him another scroll.

"Hold on tight to this and cast it the moment you start to fall. Can you do that?"

As Garyn pointed out, time is short - he won't waste it contemplating script he can't read.

He accepts the second scroll and tucks it into one of the pouches at his belt.

"Yes," he answers, without hesitation. If nothing else, he figures, he knows the first word of Slow Time. That will buy him a few more seconds to cast, should he need them.

Garyn gazes into the sky, reckoning their launch trajectory. He points westward.

"We'll start out facing this way. Stick by me and don't let me leave your sight. On my signal."

He readies the scroll, glances back for a moment, and braces himself.

"Now."

"Right."

On Garyn's signal he casts - the initial push feels somewhat similar to Whirlwind Sprint, but in all other ways this is a completely new sort of magic.

He finds himself treading air, even if it's not strictly necessary, and splitting his attention between Garyn and the landscape below - it's a sort of view he's only ever seen once before, from Odahviing's back.

It's a good thing he's not afraid of heights.

The landscape has shrunk beneath their feet. From this height it is almost like looking down at a smaller relief map within the map they now carry. The wind whips Garyn's hair back as he squints into the distance.

Garyn sees the ridges of the mountains below and dives forward to ride as near the crest as possible.

There. That must be Saering's Watch. He points his finger toward it, knowing he won't be heard in flight. Not that he would need to point it out, given what's happening beneath them at this very moment.

No, the dragon fighting a dozen or so draugr is fairly noticeable. Rather than land in the middle of that, Vanyel looks around for a higher vantage point.

Fortunately, they have their pick of those. Saering's Watch still has several mostly intact towers and connecting bridges, to say nothing of the mountain itself.

He picks one of those bridges, and once he feels himself starting to fall casts from the second scroll as instructed. His landing isn't the most graceful, perhaps, but he manages.

From there, he summons a flame atronach. She glides into their midst and attacks indiscriminately, only adding to the chaos of the brawl.

Garyn reaches the ground first. His . He skips without accelerating down the slope of the mountain until he reaches a ledge just abreast of the aerie's altarpiece. It is large enough for Garyn to stand on, but too small for the dragon.

His bow is drawn the moment he lands. Shot by shot, he picks at the edges of the fiery melee. The ranks of the draugr are thinning.

And then there is a rush of wind behind him. It's not that he hadn't noticed when the dragon took to the air. But, he had reasoned, this ledge was far too small for a dragon to land on. The problem is, a dragon doesn't need to land...

Garyn crouches low and summons his shield barely in time.

He'd been firing primarily at the draugr as well. Their tactics against the dragon prove that they're the sort with some rudimentary intelligence left; slaying the dragon will be tricky enough without having to guard against surprise attacks from them.

When the dragon takes flight, though, he turns his attention to it. It doesn't appear to be a frost dragon, so he loads the crossbow with a normal bolt, soaked in a stamina-draining potion. He has too few of the exploding ones to want to risk wasting them.

When it hovers over Garyn, he takes his chance to fire - and hits it just under the wing. Hardly a fatal blow, but more than enough to irritate and distract the dragon.

The dragon turns its head and grunts in pain and surprise. It's not much, but it's just enough to give Garyn time as he looses an arrow into the beast's throat.

The dragon bellows, nearly gurgling, and lunges with its snapping jaws at the ledge as Garyn jumps off it onto the ground below.

And once Garyn has jumped, and Vanyel can be sure of not accidentally hitting him, he takes the opportunity to cast a lightning spell.

As the dragon was following Garyn, the spell grazes along its side, from wing to leg - which means it lands much more heavily than it intended, with only one leg that will support its weight, and is unable to take flight again immediately.

And as the dragon roars its displeasure with this development, Vanyel scrambles down from his own perch as quickly as he can.

Garyn rises from a crouch and draws his sword, just in time to parry the blow of an oncoming draugr.

The dragon is stumbling and lumbering around on the ground behind him, trying to right itself after the blows it has taken.

To keep it off balance for a little while longer, Vanyel maneuvers himself close enough to Shout at it. "Joor Zah Frul!"

And while the dragon is occupied with its magic-induced existential crisis, he follows that up with another burst of lightning - before getting rather distracted himself as a frost troll emerges from its den and charges at him.

Edited 2015-12-03 20:39 (UTC)

The dragon huddles against the ground, bellowing in confusion. Meanwhile, Garyn locks blades with the hulking draugr. He pushes forward, gaining leverage over the ancient revenant before sweeping his leg under it and sending it to the ground.

He glances toward the frost troll, seeking to know in that fleeting instant whether his assistance is needed...

Vanyel was able to duck the troll's initial lunge -though only just- and by the time Garyn looks over he's recovered enough to fire back at the troll with a long burst of flame. The flame atronach he summoned earlier has rejoined the fight as well. They have the troll in hand, at least for the moment.

It's a moot point, anyway - the dragon has recovered enough to clamber into snapping range.

Garyn enters a defensive posture as it lunges at him - dancing, waiting for an opening.

The power of his Shout is dissipating as well, and Vanyel is too occupied with staying out of range of the troll to do much about that at the moment - the constant bombardment of flames is doing quite a number on it, but it's still got at least enough life in it to lunge if he stops casting.

It's difficult to miss the moment when the dragon lunges forward, though, and to guess from that what it intends - probably not to eat him, or even bite anything off. But with an arm or leg in its mouth it could shake him like a ragdoll, drop him back to the ground from great heights, or do any number of other unpleasant things. Thinking quickly, he orders the atronach to go distract the dragon. He has enough magicka -and enough exploding crossbow bolts- to deal with the troll.

The burning daedroth rises to hover above the ground before diving headlong into the side of the beast's head, just as it was snapping for Garyn's leg. In its hobbled state, the searing blow is enough to send it reeling, snapping its head back like a felled prizefighter.

It's more than enough. Garyn coils his legs beneath him and plunges Trueflame into the dragon's neck.

The atronach has done her job, then - though that doesn't stop her from continuing to lob fireballs at the dragon. Like most of her kind, she enjoys fighting, and since she hasn't been ordered to stand down... luckily, she's on the other side of the dragon and there's little to no chance of her hitting Garyn.

Vanyel, meanwhile, finishes off the troll as quickly as he's able, blasting it with fire bolts and laying into it with Dawnbreaker until it's down for good. Then he continues his descent - it looks like they've just about finished off the dragon, but just in case...

The life ebbs quickly from the wounded dragon, as it slumps to its death. Its flesh crumbles, crackles, and glows as its soul flows out of it.

And once again, the specter of Miraak appears to absorb its soul. This time, it seems, he has no time or inclination to taunt his fellow Dragonborn; he simply absorbs the soul in silence and is gone.

Only once he's vanished does Vanyel speak up. "We should probably avoid having to slay any more dragons if we can possibly help it. I don't know what he'd need dragon souls for, but it can't be good."

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Sorry this is so late - RL is devouring me

No prob, this time of year is pretty busy irl for just about everyone

Got even busier after that. Sure would like to get this started again.

I'm down with that : )

Re: I'm down with that : )

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Sorry for yet another delay - holiday and job shenanigans

No worries!

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