Feel free to dot here, I will be making the first post Monday!
Dot
The An-Xileel ruling tribe of Black Marsh have learned harsh lessons from the Oblivion Crisis and the Accession War that followed. After the sack of Morrowind's capital city, Mournhold, and the raids into the Oblivion realms, Black Marsh's rulers became very, very rich. Artifacts and treasures of great magical power are more commonplace in this province than in most others.
This has led to the rebirth of the Shadowscales, which had formerly fallen into the disfavor of Sithis.
All of you are either Shadowscales yourselves or Irregulars that have proven your worth to the An-Xileel ruling Argonian castes. You were informed by Bantam-la, an elderly An-Xileel tribal lord, that an artifact has surfaced that could put all others to shame - an Elder Scroll.
The informant that provided the An-Xileel of this information was a Nord, a prisoner of the Thalmor that had been rescued from one the High Elves' holdings in Vvardenfell. Out of hatred for the high elves and gratitude for saving his life, the Nord warned the Argonians that the Thalmor also know of the Elder Scroll's location.
Your first priority is to prevent the Scroll from falling into hostile hands, and the Thalmor qualify for that. Therefore, you traveled out of Black Marsh to the island province of Vvardenfell.
West of the house of Tel Brenora is an old sanctuary of the Dark Brotherhood, now abandoned. Though it is not an active shrine to Sithis, it remains a place of power, and its location is known to the Shadowscales. It is there that Lacendur, Justicar of the Thalmor, has been said to be holed up.
On the island, in a cave below sea level, is a Black Door - or, what is left of one. You stand before it now, and see that some force has ripped the door off its hinges. Your target, so your intelligence reports, is within...
What do you do?
The old black-scaled priest is smaller than the other argonians. His black robes drip comfortably, quietly as the group gathers before the doorway. With a sigh of the type that only seems to issue from the elderly or overly experienced, one that is completely lacking of any surprise, Dal-Jerei speaks. His voice is a quiet hiss that issues from between his teeth and his complete lack of movement otherwise makes his slight form almost invisible in the near-darkness.
"It is never a clear stream..."
The old argonian spends a careful moment examining the situation in stillness.
With a practiced eye, the old Argonian studies the immediate vicinity outside of the door. An unwary adventurer with more ambition than sense might charge in and fall prey to the Ice Runes placed in three innocuous places, but Dal-Jerei is far from unwary. He points them out to the other Shadowscales; you may now avoid them and leave them active behind you when you enter, or trigger them safely at a distance with a thrown rock, arrow or spell, as you prefer. The blast radius is small on runes like these, only inflicting damage within close range, but powerful despite its size. You know of many young Argonian warriors that were ruined forever by stepping on a rune and blowing off their legs.
The patterns on the runes were unmistakable Thalmor style; all braggadocious and arrogant in their script. Altmer wizards (in general) tended to make their warding magics more...flowery, simply because they could. Beware of further rune traps and other destructive magical hazards within, as they are favored by the Aldmeri organization.
With the threats in the immediate vicinity identified, the old priest studies the door critically for clues, and sees that rust is not present on the parts of the door that were broken when the door was ripped off. Thus, the old, rusted Black Door was broken into recently.
The strange Argonian with copper-red scales always seemed to radiate heat. She speaks little, but is tall and lanky, almost reed-like in stature.
She seems particularly dismayed about the ice traps, saying "Such arrogance as attempting to steal the fire from one's soul is blasphemy."
The lithe dark teal Argonian crouches down as she peers into the sanctuary, the large owl on her hood doing the same with it's large soul-piercing eyes
"Best to leave them for now; we wouldn't want to ruin the surprise"
Moving past the traps, Lionel checks the next area of the cave tunnel :
What here is not what it appears to be?
Lionel, you stride past the ice runes and into the Sanctuary, past the torn gate. Immediately inside, you have to bring your strides to a sudden stop, revealing another trap. A tripwire, nearly as thin as spider's silk, is stretched across the stairs leading further down. You make the Argonians aware of the trap and step carefully over it, examining the mechanism. Following the rope and gears that had been hidden in the shadows of the tunnel, your gaze turns upward to the ceiling, where a concealed and covered murderhole is waiting to spill open on whomever triggers the tripwire.
Further down the stairs, you enter a room shaped like an overturned bowl, with sloping walls all converging toward the center. An altar to Sithis was meant to be mounted in the central portion of this room, it's plain, but the altar has been desecrated and destroyed.
There are doors leading out of this room to your right, left, and on the opposite side of the room from you. You can hear a faint sound coming from deeper within, but you can't quite make it out.
The old argonian hisses quietly to himself at the further traps. "It is as I thought. These thin-scaled Altmer intend for us to fall on their traps. Sithis is not ready for us yet... Dryskin... if you are to take the lead, let me show you the power of The Dread-Father..."
Dal-Jerei steps up to the Redguard and makes a pulling motion from the ground and the shadows seem to climb onto and enshroud Lionel.
The spell is cast favorably. Your spirit of vengeance bodes well for this place, and you feel attuned to Sithis' will as you protect the Redguard from harm.
Hisstla follows the others, simply taking in the space around her as she goes.
"Anyone have any preferences - left, right, or forward?"
Having followed the others in silence Geetra-Na moves forward and listens at the doors then takes a few moments to check around the altar
"You wouldn't believe the number of secret doors people put behind altars" she says in explanation of her actions
Having followed the others in silence Geetra-Na moves forward and listens at the doors then takes a few moments to check around the altar
"You wouldn't believe the number of secret doors people put behind altars" she says in explanation of her actions
You find nothing unusual in the room - no more traps here, at least.
Listening at the central door, you can hear a chanting coming from deeper within the Sanctuary. It's too indistinct to make out the words from here, however. There's nothing else of note in this room but the three doors leading further into the Sanctuary. What do you do?
"Let's start with the left door" and Lionel walks up to it...
...and quietly opens it to see...???
It appears that the door is safe after you tentatively pull on it and jump back a step. Throwing open the door, you see a hallway, about 15 feet in length, with three torches spaced out on alternate walls to provide illumination. At the end of the hallway is another doorway that is open. Through the doorway you see an enchanting table and part of a bed, but you'd need to enter the room to see in greater detail.
"Dryskin... you should have faith in Sithis. Continue on..." The old priest follows calmly behind the redguard.
Tip-toeing down the corridor, Lionel gets to the doorway and cautiously looks inside to see...???
You find what looks like a barracks, not unlike the cloistered homes of a monastery. There are numerous beds in this room, 10 in all, along with some corpses. You glance around for threats, your senses alert, but you sense no rune spells or mundane traps of any kind. The room extends off to the right, further into the underground, and at the end of the row of beds you see an alchemist's table, covered with jars and mortar pestles, with some pouches hanging off the table from hooks.
You search the room quickly, and find a selection of items. Under the enchanting table is a basket with three Soul Gems inside - one of Greater quality, and two that are Black.
At the alchemist's table you find an Alchemist's Pouch with 3 uses.
Under the beds, you find some Dark Brotherhood weapons that have been hidden in discreet places. Describe the two weapons that you find. They are unenchanted.
There's nothing else remarkable in the room.
Geetra-Na keeps watch in the altar room with her bow drawn
One of the two weapons located is a black iron Atheme: a wavy bladed knife with runes etched into it.
Hisstla bears the loot and scouting information he found back to the main chamber. There is the central door and the door on the right that remain unexplored in this Sanctuary. What do you do next?
"I wonder if that other door leads to a similar room." The old argonian moves carefully to the door on the right watching for traps since they had been so prevalent before. If the coast seems clear, he calmly opens it.
There's no light beyond the rightmost door leading out of the Sanctuary's antechamber. After checking carefully for any obvious traps, you step forward, allowing your keen Argonian eyes to adjust to the dark as best as they can.
You're startled by the sound of growling, and chains pulling against each other; and softly padded footfalls on the ground.
You step back in alarm, but you aren't attacked. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you see eyes - two pairs of them - looking at you out of the gloom. It's difficult to tell in the darkness, but the eyes appear to belong to large dogs. Judging from the metallic sounds you hear accompanying the growling, they seem as if they are chained down. What do you do?
Hisstla will summon a small ball of fire in her hand to better assess the situation.
Hisstla's light reveals two dogs, their fur shaggy and unkempt, their eyes glowing in the light of her flame. They growl defensively, backing up onto their haunches, but don't make any aggressive moves. Their collars are bound to a chainpost on the far side of the room, and the chain doesn't appear long enough to allow them to leave the room. They appear to be suffering from neglect. Perhaps they belong to the Thalmor, but if so, he is a bad dog owner. What do you do?
Lionel goes over to the center door, and listens at it carefully, and checks for traps before opening it just enough to look inside and see...???
A strange blue light spills out of the doorway. Looking down into the hallway beyond the central door, you see that the walls have been removed. Water from the sea surrounding this island Sanctuary is visible on each side, yet the hallway isn't flooded. It's being held back by a magical barrier that shimmers and flows from ceiling to floor on either side. The hallway descends even deeper down, and you can hear the chanting slightly more clearly now that the door has been opened. You cannot see the end of the hallway from where you stand, in the central antechamber.
"The water clouds further..." The old argonian raises his eyebrows with concern. "Be ready."
Dal-Jerei steps up to the door, studying the magic that holds the water back.
The bluish, semi-transparent magical barrier seems to be a product of powerful Alteration magic. For walls to be maintained on a seemingly permanent basis like this would require a magical focus of some kind - likely a very powerful Soul Gem. The entire Sanctuary is below sea level, so these barriers are all that is keeping the entire place from flooding.
"Do we have one among our number that might be able to deal with these animals without harming them?" asks Hisstla of the group.
"I don't know anything specific about animals, but what if we fed them...perhaps they would take a liking to us?"
"The animals are not our concern. Let us move on." The old argonian barely spares the dogs a second glance, his focus instead upon the powerful magic in front of him.
"The magic at work here could be useful to our cause... if we can claim it."
Dal-Jerei moves calmly into the magical tunnel.
Dal-Jerei, you see a large dark shape move past the "window" formed by the magical barrier as you travel down the hallway. After it descends for a few dozen meters, going deeper and deeper and deeper underwater, you finally find yourself at a large and ornate metal door covered with spikes. Flanking the door on either side are stone gargoyles perched on stone plinths, each about half the size of a man.
"We should melt the statues before they become active." says Hisstla more as a demand than a suggestion.
Lionel looks at Histla, his eyes a bit wide, and says "You can melt stone?"
"All bow before the power of flame." says Hisstla.
The old argonian raises an eyebrow and shrugs, stepping aside and gesturing toward them.
"Melt away."
Hisstla calls upon her inner flame and then...
I'd allow it, but it'd take extra time given the higher melting temperature of stone. You'd essentially have to turn it into liquid magma. That'd require at least a roll in addition to the extra time it would take. Meanwhile, the chanting beyond yonder door continues.
Just use your primary casting stat in this case. :)