Lord of the Magic Dice

[Maharg67]

STARTING AGAIN WITH NEW SIMPLER AND HOPEFULLY BETTER WRITTEN VERSION OF THIS STORY. WRITING THIS HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL AS A WRITER BECAUSE IT HARDENED ME TO THE IDEA OF TRYING AGAIN TO PUBLISH MY WRITINGS. IT DID THIS BECAUSE OF MY DARING TO PUT MY WRITING ON THIS FORUM FOR ANYBODY TO READ. MY ONLY WISH IS THAT MORE PEOPLE WOULD TAKE THE TIME TO READ OTHER FORUM USERS' WORK AND TO GIVE POSITIVE, IF BRIEF, FEEDBACK.

 

 

PLEASE BE WARNED THAT I DO EDIT AND HAVE ALTERED EARLIER FACTS

(1) THE EMPEROR HAS GONE FROM BEING A VAMPIRE TO DEMON-SEEDED TO BETTER FIT WITH THE STORY

 

Tameriel is much bigger because I have expanded it out and added new settlements, forts, other features for writing as compared to being part of a game.

 

Copyrighted as follows @ 2009 (basically want people to ask before they use any of these concepts and to acknowledge where they came from).

 

Kurikondi = battlemages from Kirndu

gobbit = goblin like creature

gobgoblin = hybrid goblin-gobbit

muckopus

Opisoriti-Opisori

Kirndu

Cartorari

Cartorariata

skel = animated skeleton

 

Wheel of Fate?

 

FARDIF is based on TARDIS of Doctor Who and can not be copyrighted.

 

 

Story takes place roughly three hundred years after the death of Martin.

 

Since then there have been dark times including the War of the Five Emperors that is commonly known as the War of the Five.

 

Guilds have risen, have fragmented, have rejoined.

The Mages Guild has grown larger but now there is also a Healers Guild that has many healing focused mages in it and the Magisans Guild (Magic Artisans) who also have many mages but ones focused on making magical devices including weapons.

Illusionaries Guild are mages, often minor level ones, who focus on creating entertainments such as amusing audio-visual projections. Can also work with the Actors Guild as magical effects makers.

 

Fighters Guild has become the Guards Guild representing private security guards sometimes contracted out by the empire.

But then a new Fighters Guild arose, a semilegal guild dedicated to fighting outlaws, bandits, minor monsters and other such threats for free and kind affordable donations.

 

Theives Guild has become the Outlaws Guild with there being a Theives Subguild.

 

Other Guilds to rise are the Merchants, Traders, Artisans, Mercenaries, Farmers, Artists, Couriers and others.

 

An attempt to bring back slavery has been only partially successful with powerful forces attempting to abolish it again and many provinces working against it.

 

Druids, Sorcerers, Wizards, Witches and Warlocks have come into the land from overseas but their true origin remains a mystery.

 

Two long forgotten Gods are rearising being Panyre the Goddess of Natural Magic (Wild Magic) and Gaigia the Goddess of the Cycles (of Birth and Rebirth), Healing and Compassion.

 

Martina stepped away from the corner of the big chamber and crouched suddenly. She was flowing with her senses well and so the bright glowing ball of energy struck the wall above her. It would have hit her if she had not crouched so swiftly. In her yellow trousers and clipshirt she showed the promise of a young battlemage of a special kind, one of the Kurikondi who had come to dwell in the Empire over the last two decades. She also showed that she was a young woman in the rather tight outfit that she was sure was designed for somebody both thinner then her and, as far as the shirt went, male.

 

Trainer Haroln grinned wickedly as the magical targeting device kept spinning around and threatening to throw more random energy missiles at her. Not that they would do more than sting her and leave her with a mild bruise if it hit her bare skin, but that would mean loss of points. Her pride could not handle that idea even if her high score average did not suffer too much. Like all Kurikondi she was a redbrown of skin and black haired with pale brown eyes.

 

Haroln spoke in a provoking voice. "Slowing down already, girl! Don't just stay there, move!"

 

She admired Haroln but did not like him much. He was too harsh, too brittle and he looked at her in a way sometimes that she did not like. Being admired was fine if it did not get in the way of her plans or her duties but he looked at her as if her very good looks, and she was very attractive, was something that he held against her. Yet he did not treat other young women like that, not even the more attractive ones. Yet it was not this that truly caused her to be wary of him but something deeper and more subtle.

 

But it was part of the training to not get provoked by him into doing something stupid so for the moment she stayed just where she was in that big old ugly metallic rock chamber with the only light coming from a narrow horizontal slit window high on one wall. The room was mostly underground, was the basement chamber of a fort outside of the Imperial City. The fort had been in ruins until about ten years ago when it was rebuilt along with many others through out the empire as part of the new Emperor's Grand Reconstruction Program. Except that this fort had been given over to the Kurikondi thanks to their service to the empire and the new ruler, the Emperor Obrasis Isanass.

 

Martina now dived and rolled, came up at a sprint as more energy balls shot at her. The magical testing device had a basic intelligence, a certain cunning, but she had learned its tricks quite well now and was tired of it. Yet she could not afford to lose any points.

 

Haroln nodded and then reached out to press a metal lever inset partly into one stone wall. The magical testing device became still as it was deactivated. Then he spoke to her. "Now you are ready for your first mission."

 

At that a flood of joy went through her but she only smiled for it was not the way of her people to show too much emotion unless on very special occasions or very dark ones. Then she spoke. "Is this the mission that people have been whispering so much about recently?"

 

"Part of it, I suspect, but it is not my place to give you your first briefing. I congratulate you on your amazing progress but don't let it go to your head. Yes you are one of the best to come through the Secret Academy in many years but many fail on the first mission. Of course everybody is given a second chance if they survive but it is best if one succeeds. Now, go at once to speak with Lady Sharmire. She awaits for you in her office." He made his right hand into a fist, cupped it with his left and bowed from the waist briefly. "I will send somebody to prepare a horse for your use, one of those you work best with."

 

Martina left the training room, went along a hallway and then into a changing room with some gravity fed showers. The water came from a water tank tower just outside the building. She walked past where some young men were showering behind a thin waterproof curtain and then was undressing behind another such curtain where lines of steel lockers ran along two walls. In a stone alcove were the actual showerheads and the metal levers that controlled them.

 

Two women were showering, both slimly muscular. Kandita the archery specialist was speaking then, her tall angular frame all annoyance. "The new Emperor is a fool and we were fools to support him. At the start his grandious schemes looked to be little more than propaganda for the masses but now it seems he really believes in them and he is bleeding the empire dry with his demands for more and more great big public projects. At the same time his own cronies and hangers on are getting richer and more powerful while the Imperial City Court becomes increasingly corrupt. Now the Emperor has decided to raid the Imperial Welfare Fund, stripping it off its gold treasuries and closing down all of the welfare hospitals, shelters and orphanages through out the empire. He wants to tax beggers, to heavily restrict the use of magic, to take direct control of all guilds and to become the Chancellor of the Mages Guild. We, the Kurikondi, must break away from this fool before he goes down and takes us with him."

 

The other woman, the slimly voluptuous Sereda, humphhed. "Did you not guess it by now, foolish woman, but we are one of the Emperor's cronies. We have gained much and can only gain more by supporting Lord Urish who in turn supports our alliance with the Emperor. You must be silent and support Lord Urish for your words are disloyal."

 

Martina did not like, was not comfortable with Sereda, in the same way as she was with Haroln. Yet these feeling for the two and a scattering of others of her people in the fort were fairly new as if they had changed somehow and she had become more able to sense that change.

 

Kandita sighed as if giving up on something. "Lord Urish really does have you under his influence. As for staying silent, it is the right of every Kurikondi to have her or his say. It is the traditional way of our people."

 

But Sereda frowned. "Lord Urish says that such old traditions are holding us back and that we must heed his intelligence, wisdom and experience. Is he not our great hero who brought us to this continent in the first place? Yes he is. The other Lords and Ladies of the Council are fools. They do not heed his greatness. They do not do what is right and step down to allow him to..."

 

The two of them then noticed Martina.

 

Sereda scowled. "Go away girl and let us finish speaking in peace."

 

But Kandita then slapped Sereda hard across her face. The sneak magic instructor leapt backwards and rubbed her face. She was clearly shocked and angry.

 

Kandita spoke with much anger. "How dare you both go against the very structure of our way of doing things and attempt to halt a comrade from doing what she has to do to fulfill her duties? Are you a fool now? Has Lord Urish filled your brain with mush?"

 

Martina suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation run through her body and her mind whirled. Then the vision came to her in a series of vivid flashes that would anchor themselves firmly to her memory. In reality all of this took but seconds but to her it seemed much longer.

 

Then the visions were gone and she was pointing to Sereda. "Lord Urish plans to betray us all and Sereda knows of this, is part of it. In three days time, at midnight, three secret escape tunnels will be opened to a large force of Imperial Assassinators, the new dark force of Obrasis Isanass The Assassinators do not wish the Kurikondi to continue as they see us as both competition and a threat though neither is true. The Emperor is quite mad and getting madder for traitors in his court are secretly poisoning him with frantic weed. Look to storeroom 3 in the west end of the ground level of the fort. Behind a large yellow wooden barrel is a hole in the wall and this leads to a secret chamber. In that chamber is all the proof one needs that what I say is true."

 

Both women stared at her in amazement for Martina had never before openly shown signs of being a seer, a psychic visionary.

 

Then Sereda screamed in rage and attacked Martina .

 

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt9/Dragonpen61/Patterns%20One/Avatar-002.jpg

(to be continued)

[Maharg67]

Martina whirled to one side and Sereda for a moment seemed to be rushing past but then the older, more experienced woman struck out against the younger, showing it was just a trick. Martina was thrown back as Sereda's right fist made contact with her chest with a flash of fiery red-yellow energy. The younger woman managed to generate a field around herself with the speed and ease normally shown by much older students or even many graduated ones. Despite this she was hurled backwards and felt a surge of pain go through her body as she hit the hard floor, rolled and came up into a crouch.

 

Just in time to see an armoured male guard enter the area normally forbidden to men and shoot Sereda with a crosspistol (repeater crossbow pistol firing up to three crossdarts from a fixed magazine). Martina was taken by surprise by the odd death of the woman. As three crossdarts struck her naked body, she screamed and then she burned away. It was like an amazingly fast form of spontanious combustion that made the whole body burn away at once. Then there was nothing but a strange, burned, rancid smell.

 

Sereda had been willingly demon-seeded by an uvodemon, a type of dark entity that could only enter the mortal planes by infesting the bodies of stupidly willing mortals. The ancient enemies of the Kurikondi, or at least one of them, had followed them from a far off homeland. It was a shock that Kurikondi had gone over to uvodemonic followership, if not worship, but not a total shock or the first time. A long time ago a great Kurikondi President had betrayed his people in order to save his own power, his own life. That had been on another world. Sereda had not been told that the Kurikondi came from another world or that they had a hidden homeland somewhere on that world. They were like other facts she had picked them up through dreams and visions that she had carefully kept hidden from others. A strong instinct told her to do so but now she had blurted out enough to draw too much attention to herself.

 

Kandita spoke with an odd smile on her face. "Sereda was once a fine comrade, a good warrior and one of my best friends. We went through the Kurikondi Academy together. We did our first mission together as part of a team. But when Lord Urish arrived from our secret homland on this world, she began to fall to his insideous influence. From the start Lord Urish has caused us trouble here in Cyrodiil. A first there was little that he did, being more of annoyances than anything else but this changed and he became increasingly dangerous. We are not foolish. We took steps to isolate the real influence of him and his followers. Through out this fort the other uvodemon-seeded self deluded puppets of Lord Urish, now further deluded by infestation, are being terminated."

 

The older woman nodded as if to herself but perhaps was not doing so. "We must leave the fort soon. Already preparations have been made to shift everybody and everything to a new, secret location. You will not go there. Go now and see Lady Sharmire but not in her office. You must meet her down in the deep basement chamber, the one that is half cave that served as a secret base for marauders when the fort was ruins. There Lady Sharmire will give you your instructions, your equpment and supplies. Your personal belongings and other items will be sent onto the new location including those beautiful painting and sketch scrolls of yours, so accurate and yet so fluid."

 

Martina made her way through hallway passages, down rampways, along more hallways. Other Kurikondi were busy bustling around with various tasks. Many were loading up stuff onto handcarts while others pulled full handcarts to where carts and wagons would be loaded up. At times she noted blood on armour or other gear. At other times she noted signs of fighting such as burn marks on walls or floors, patches of blood. Once healers raced past carrying two wounded comrades on litters.

 

The deeper she went down into the depths of the rebuilt fort, the more uneasy she felt. Martina remembered other times when she had felt uneasy though she could not explain why. When trainees failed they were sent away very quickly to a safe secret place where they could serve the Kurikondi in other ways. Or so had gone the story. Many had been orphans like herself. They had picked up in various orphanages through out the empire from Bruma to the rebuilt Kvatch to the Imperial City itself. She was from Imperial City. Yet she had felt uneasy when failed trainees had departed and also uneasy when she was told her official history.

 

Then she was in dark, unusused areas and was heading along a very old stone block tunnel to where the cavern was. The tunnel ended in a big old metal door that had been fixed and cleaned up. Martina opened the door, stepped through and found herself in the big chamber, part room and part cavern, that she had never been to before though she had been told once about it, that it was where a cave tunnel allowed failed trainees to find a way to a fine new home or where others sometimes departed for special missions.

 

But there was no tunnel mouth.

 

There was no Lady Sharmire.

 

The chamber was not as described but only a big old cavern roughly evened out. It was not empty. The dead remains of failed trainees were scattered around the place as were those of a few young battlemages who had been sent on special missions. It seemed they had all been sent down there in their training outfits for there was no sign of anything else being there. She felt sad for all of these young betrayed people and not just those few she had liked or even loved. It was then that she knew for sure that many of what she had taken as very vivid nightmares had been the truth.

 

They had been betrayed just as she was betrayed but somehow she was not surprised. She automatically turned to retreat but the door slammed closed behind her and she heard large bolts being rammed home.

 

As a small vent opened up in the metal door and a strange purple gas began to pour into the chamber she expected to die for there was simply nowhere to go, no way to escape. All around was solid rock. But then she got a flash, a vision, and she had hope of a very odd kind.

 

:bunny: :bunny: :bunny:

[dezdimona]

very cool.

[Maharg67]

Martina darted away from the door and the gas that broiled along the floor. She reached the spot of the rock wall that the vision had been about, noted that its colouration and texture were actually different from that of the rest of the wall. Then she struck it with her fist with a flash of yellow-white explosive energies. A normal part of that solid rock wall may well have hurt her, even badly, for trying such a trick. Instead the part of the wall disintegrated as it was supposed to do, as it was designed to do. There it was, most exotic and unexpected, a small metallic shiny six sided dice with odd symbols on each surface. The vision knowledge she had gained was not great but it was sure that she had to throw the dice if she wanted to live, so the battlemage did so.

 

The dice struck the rock floor, bounced once and then came down with a blue symbol facing upwards. At once she felt a surge of magic electricity flow through her and in her right hand formed a sparkling elemental longsword of lightening. At that she raised it and aimed it at the purple gas. From the tip of the weapon sprang blue energies like a pulses of crackling, glowing, sparkling etectricity. They struck the gas and the purple stuff began to vanish. Again and again she fired the sword until the gas was gone. The sword itself, not a real solid device, began to fade away even as its energy was used up. Then it was gone and so was the gas.

 

Martina had been saved but she was still trapped inside that chamber. Then she realised that there was tall, slim warrior maiden standing behind and to one side of her. She was wearing rather exotic translucent metallic body tight flexible armour. Her light blood blue skinned face was exposed, her dark red hair flowed down from beneath her blue helmet to shoulder length. At her left was a circular sheild of the same blue translucent metallic nature. At her belt were a knife, a shortsword and a longsword along with a canteen and pouches, all being blue of course.

 

The odd woman spoke to Martina in a moderately hard, mildly warm voice. "Lady Martina, I am the first of your elemental flesh maidens of the spark, or spark-maidens. You can only utilise my services until my energies are all utilised. If I am not recharged by other means and my energies are all used up, I will vanish until I am fully recharged. You can have me vanish, to store myself away, at any time to rest and gather new energies."

 

Marina nodded to the other. The surprise was that she had not really felt surprised at the appearance of this 'spark maiden'. "Where did this dice come from?"

 

"That is a Lesser Dice of Fate!" The spark-maiden responded. "How it got to be there is beyond my knowledge. Devices of Fate tend to go where they would, where they should, following the endlessly contradictory Patterns of Controlled Chaos. Not only this Lesser Dice of Fate has been activated but a hidden Lesser Wheel of Fate. I suggest strongly that we retreat to a corner and lie on our bellies to be as small as targets as we can be."

 

Deciding she would have to wait to try to work things out later, Martina darted to a corner and got onto her belly. The spark-maiden lie next to her in such a way as to partly be a barrier protecting her.

 

At that moment in the very centre of the chamber, in mid air, a ball of yellow-white light energies expanded from a pin angel until it was just over a metre wide. Then it exploded and for a couple of seconds the whole chamber was filled with energies. There was heat, bright light and Martina squeezed her eyes closed as for a moment the light seemed to flood through her, causing her to feel good, to be rejuvenated. Then it was gone.

 

The whole wall where the ring had been concealed was gone. Now the chamber did look part cave and part stone block made chamber, the very one that had been described to her in previous times. The built up part had been behind what had turned out to be a so called solid illusion, a fake rock wall made up of projected energies. All the dead young Kurikondi were also gone. They, it seemed, had also been solid illusions. It was also a trick.

 

So what was really going on?

 

What was all of this strange ruse all about?

 

Were the Kurikondi behind the trick or was it something to do with the strange dice she had been drawn to and then used to such startling results?

 

At that moment Lady Sharmire entered the chamber at the head of a number of Kurikondi leaders, their bodyguards, other elite warriors and some instructors. Almost as one they all knelt to her on one knee and bowed their head forward. It was astonishing, it was amazing and she was stunned.

 

Then they stood up with normal smooth fluid motions.

 

Lady Sharmire spoke. "You are now the Champion of Fates. We are sorry that we had to put you through this test. Please know that the bodies were fake, that the failed trainees are doing other important duties in the new hidden base, that the special mission warriors are either at the new base or are out on missions of their own. We have suspected for a long time now that you were, are, the Champion of Fates. We hid knowledge from you but you gained it anyway. You are an incredible mage and fighter both, far more than we have actually revealed to you. Everything you went through was to hopefully lead you to be guided to the Lesser Dice of Fate that the Kurikondi gained centuries ago with great effort and at great cost. Now you have proved yourself doubly so for only the Champion of Fate can truly utilise the Lesser Dice of Fate. I suggest you allow the spark-maiden to rest and recreate in the hidden domain of the dice that is now yours as a bonus of being the 'champion'."

 

Martina frowned. "I do not think the demon business was part of the test."

 

Lady Sharmire shook her head. "Lord Urish and his fools of followers were meant to stop you from becoming the Champion of Fates. That is why Sereda attacked you with such savagery for you were the real target all along. The false Emperor now also sees you as a threat, for he is in truth not of either of the Imperial Bloodlines or of the chosen destiny that could overcome such a lack. A large force of Assassinators is on its way here as we speak and most likely it is strengthened by dark allies such as necromancers and demonic cult mages for the false Emperor is a willingly demon-seed person of the worst kind. That is one who glorifies in his possession, in far more than just sating his lust for life energies and who feeds off pain, unlike those who either choose to be like predators carefully choosing their small number of prey or those rare who abstain, who seek other ways to sustain themselves or even to transform themselves from demonic into something else. Rarely angels may fall but sometimes the demonic want to rise."

 

Martina turned and nodded to the spark-maiden who vanished with a sparkling shimmer.

 

Then she looked around and noted that the room part of the big chamber was mainly just a stone block area of floor, walls and ceiling lit by small glowcrystal lamps but that there were also some odd features. A big old heavy wooden wardrobe stood in one corner, all shiny and polished as if brand new. It was overly ornate, had an amazing amount of small cupboard doors, closed drawers and no less than three big big doors. Hundred of different symbols, creatures, people, animals and other things were carved into its shape. On top was what looked to be a big wooden chest, wide and low with a shallow curved lid. The chest was plainer than the wardrobe but was also shiny and new looking plus seemingly of very hard tropical woods.

 

Her Drobe of Fates! Or at least hers as long as she was the Champion of Fates.

 

As if drawn to it, she walked to it until she stopped because other items in that room now became apparent to her.

 

On a big wooden table were three weapons of translucent metallic material being a yellow-white knife, a flame red shortsword and an electric blue longsword. These were powerful elemental magic weapons. A translucent metallic shield was all three colours in three big cake slices of equal size for it was a shield of all three elemental magic forms.

 

More mundane items on the table were five ornate letter scrollcases of bone, a crosspistol, a crossfle that was a bigger version of a crosspistol, three full leather coin-purses, light leather body-armour, the sort of tough durable clothes and footwear any middle class traveller might use, a small pile of leather bound books, a fair sized well made backpack, a combat knife in a sheaf, throwing knives in a special combined sheaf and a few other items. While a few were to be used openly as a disguise, a few were to be hidden as part of her covert battlemage role.

 

Lady Shasmire nodded. "We have equipment and supplies for your first mission that is not ours to decide. For that you must throw the Lesser Dice of Fate for it will alter its form to give you new choices, as it often will do. We will die fighting the Assassinators so that you may leave and the last convoy may get safely to the new hidden Kurikori base."

 

Martina snorted. "No, there must be a way that we can deal with the Assassinator taskforce coming to us and also save your lives so that you may better serve the Kurikondi cause in future. Anyway I have much to learn from you."

 

The older woman bowed. "We have little we can tell you for all of us were trained and taught for our whole lives to run this fort, to pretend to serve the false Emperor while actually undermining him, and to find you. We do not know of the greater mysteries, of the greater knowledge. Yet we can teach you more about your background, about what has taken place in this fort and a few such matters."

 

Lady Shasmire smiled. "You have passed another test. If you had simply agreed to throw away our lives we would have doubts in you. For that would hint in you a lack of compassion and a lack of wisdom. We will live and we have already created a trap for the dark forces of the false Emperor. Now we must get busy. You must gather your special items, equipment and supplies quickly. Then the Drobe of Fate will open for you and through that you will find your way to your first mission. Good fate be with you and may you be truly worthy of yourself, of the Kurikondi and the Goddess of Gods."

 

It was all very strange but Martina had not exactly grown up in a straight forward fashion in a straight forward community. She quickly dressed and otherwise prepared even as the other Kurikondi departed.

 

It was no surprise to her, somehow, when a large wardrobe door swung open to reveal a much larger wooden chamber that should have been seen inside even such a big wardrobe. Then she stepped into it, the door closed, and with a strange throoom throoom throoom noise the wardrobe shimmered and then vanished.

 

To be continued!

[Maharg67]

Martina found herself in the very large wooden chamber that was mostly bare. There was the closed door behind herself that looked like a closet door but also other doors, three on each wall including against the same wall she had come through. In the very centre of the room was a circular wooden structure about a a metre off the ground. On it were brass consoles with brass levers, dials, buttons and other controls along with odd glassy displays that glowed softly in various colours and other features. At the centre was a tall translucent crystallic cylinder that was moving slowly up and down. A soft throom throom throom noise was sounding in the background.

 

The warm female voice sounded deep in her mind.

 

= We are soon to arrive in Imperiatropolis (the Imperial City) but time passess differently inside the FARDIF. More time passes inside than outside. For every second that passes outside, ten seconds pass inside. The journey will take just ten seconds by outside reckonning but of course a hundred seconds by internal reckonning. This gives you more time to get things done inside the FARDIF.

 

A hundred seconds was hardly time to do anything but she examined the scrolltube contents. One had the deeds to a house and property, a city-mansion, in Imperiatropolis in the Elven Gardens District. The irony was only elf-human and human-elf hybrid peoples dwelt in the Elven Gardens District except for a fair sized minority of humans being Imperials and SemiImperials. The deed included a fair sized number of items inside the mansion building and walled yards plus other buildings, animals and plants. To her unpleasant surprise it also included slaves, semislaves and demislaves plus other unpleasantries, to her mind.

 

The second held an introductory letter to one Adriad Tomas, wealthy merchant and business lawyer. It gave his office address in the Central Commercial District that was next to the Central Market District. There were other details such as opening hours, a teleglobe number, and the name of the Receptionist who would probably be the one to greet Martina. There was even the code word to use to send a message-winger to the office. Teleglobes were magical audio visual communications devices, were specialised developments of crystal globes, and were expensive to operate. It showed that this Adriad Tomas was quite wealthy.

 

The third was some general information of Kurikondi activities in general and some general mission outlines as they operated in the empire. There some useful bits of information such as safe houses, meeting points, code words, escape routes, noted threats and so forth. Martina read it and memorised it quickly for the scroll self destructed after a minute, burning away into bits of ash.

 

The throom throom throom ended as the moving cylinder came slowly to a halt.

 

Yet she did not leave at once for with a sparkling shimmer a large exotic piece of furniture appeared just out north from the console, three metres from it, and she knew at once it was important and would continue to be so. It was a heavy wooden booth and inside three sides were desk. The desks were all sorts of things combined being desk spaces, exotic consoles, metallic slots, what looked like some sort of drink dispenser and others. There was a curious chair designed to swivel around, a comfortable design with leather upholstery, and it also had small wheels on it. Martina had never seen or heard of an office swivel chair before but now, somehow, she knew all about it as she knew about the other features of the exotic booth.

 

Sitting on the chair and wondering at its curious comfortableness, it was adjusted to her needs, Martina opened the wooden file that was waiting for her. Quickly she went through the details of her first Quest, her first secondary semiQuests fitting to that Quest, on going subQuests related to all Quests and even her first independent demiQuests. The detail was not great, as if she would either get more later or be expected to gain more information, but was more than enough to start. She was not told why she was chosen as the Champion of Fate or other knowledge that she badly wanted. She read it, memorised it and for the moment put it into the back of her mind. Thens he left the folder where it was and departed from the desk-booth.

 

With one last turned to the door she had come through and departed through it to find herself in a large ornate bedroom in a city mansion in Imperiatropolis.

 

To be continued!

[Maharg67]

Martina had been to Imperiatroplis before but only once with her Kurikondi foster family of her mother, father and two sisters plus one half brother that was not often spoken about, at least not with her around. Back when she had visited the city had been partly in ruins thank to the troubled times known as the War of the Five, or more accurately as the War of the Five Emperors. The Empire was riven with troubles, provinces had broken down or become isolated behind their own armies, rival false Imperial Armies had battled each other across the Empire when not busy causing trouble for others, until one false Emperor had prevailed.

 

He was now on the throne and was in the very city that she was in. As she paced quietly across the lightly furnished, fitted and decorated bedroom, she looked through big heavily barred window. Martina saw above the buildings opposite her own the ancient Ayleid tower, huge and elegantly powerful, thrusting up from the centre of the city. It was Ayleid and hence had survived the two battles fought in the city better than had the human built architecture. But now much rebuilding had or was taking place at least in the richer and more important city sectors. It was early morning, was only dimly lit and was growing brighter and lighter. Below in a wide cobbled street rumbled large wagons, smaller carts and even smaller, lighter horsecabs. People rode horses or ponies. Now and then came a horse drawn omnibus, or horsebus, full of citizens and semicitizens.

 

Citizens were Imperials and semicitizens were semiImperials as with Redguards, Nords and others. Many more people walked the wide flagstone footpaths (sidewalks). All the classes were represented as the street was a major one linking neighbouring sectors with each other.

 

Vendors sold warm foodrolls or roasted nuts or pastries or fresh fruit or other food or even clay cups or herbal teas, cheap beer or fruit juices. Newsboys and newsgirls sold scrolled broadsheets from various publishers. A patrol of three lightly armoured and quarterstaff armed Sheriff's Constables strode along the other side of the street. The new Sheriffs were a sign of Imperial Law at work and a reaction to the lawless madness of recent times. Imperial Cityguards rode horses past in magical armour and with magical weapons.

 

The sounds and smells were typical Imperiatropolis!

 

The bustling activity spoke of a busy city, a thriving city.

 

But at once she could sense a wary tension in the air and people seemed to be moving as if they wanted to be off the streets as quickly as they could. Even the newsroll sellers and the vendors kept looking around as if expecting trouble as did the constables and Cityguards.

 

Then she heard the newscroll sellers with her keener than normal human hearing and they were all shouting carefully worded opposition to many of the Emperor's most recent edicts and other actions. The cries came down to the following:

 

the Imperial Senate was not going to submit to the decision to replace all Senators arbitrarily with strangers of the Emperor's choosing;

 

the Guilds were not going to submit to being put under the charge of new so called Guild Lords chosen by the Emperor;

 

the Mage Guild was not going to submit to being put under the control of thirteen powerful necromancers and demonic cult mages with himself being the Chancellor.

 

the Cityguard and Sheriff were not going to submit to being disbanded and being replaced by the new Emperor's Imperial Enforcers;

 

and great many people were resisting theEmperor's raiding the Imperial Welfare Fund, stripping it off its gold treasuries, the closing down all of the welfare hospitals, shelters and orphanages through out the empire, the taxing of beggers, the heavy restriction of the use of magic and many other decisions, a far few of them coming out as edicts.

 

Martina heard, smelt and sensed the young woman coming through the doorway quietly and demurely. She turned and the slimly demure and fairly short youthful looking slavegirl bowed gracefully in a simple silken robe with slits down the side held together by leather straps at the hip and under the armpits. The slavegirl then held out a silver tray upon which were a bowlcup of warm herbal tea, a plate of finger foodrolls and a smaller bowl of dipping sauce for the small foodrolls with their fine thin pastry. This was not Imperial food but Kurikondi food made with Imperial products.

 

Martina knelt sitting at a low wooden table as the Opisori slavegirl sat kneeling across from her. The Opisori slavegirl was generally Kurikondi in appearance but slimmer, shorter and less muscular in average as all Opisori were in relation to all Kurikondi. Her eyes were almond coloured.

 

Martina took a foodroll, dipped it in sauce and then fed the slavegirl who demurely ate it moderate bite by moderate bite. Only then did Martina eat the other foodrolls except for one more than she fed to the sweetly demure Opisori.

 

Only then did the young battlemage speak. "I am Lady Martina, as you probably know by your behavour. How did you know I was coming?"

 

The slavegirl spoke demurely with eyes downcast slightly. "Lady Martina, suddenly all in the household knew that you would soon arrive though none amongst us could explain why this was so. I was sent to greet you first, as is my honour to do so, and I am here to serve in any way that you see fit. Lady Jurikarasis is in charge of the city estate, as you would know, and wishes to see you when you are ready to do so."

 

Martina smiled. "Please use your mindlink to inform through another Opisori that I will see Lady Jurikarasis soon."

 

One secret of the Opisori was that they were all aspects, in a secondary sense, of the one entity known as the Opisoriti. The Opisoriti-Opisori had once ruled the home world of the Kurikondi with great caring in some ways but with brutal force against any who would oppose or even question their leadership. The Kurikondi had served the Opisoriti-Opisori as elite military and paramilitary forces until they had risen against their ruler/rulers to save the lives of millions of innocent people. It looked as if the Opisoriti would order the desctruction of the world through the use of super weapons but the Opisori, the indvidiual aspects of it, had then rebeled. Then had come a time that nobody could remember, a blank space in history. When it was over the home world was a great democracy, the Kurikondi were the elite military arm of the democracy and the Opisoriti served the Opisori who were now the willing slaves of the Kurikondi.

 

When many had tried to discover the truth of the blanked period of history that had lasted for just one hundred years, a fact known by everybody as they woke and proven by the position of the stars and other evidence, they found only a few odd clues.

 

One was the mentioning of the world called Mundus (sometimes Nirn) upon which lay a mighty continent called Tamriel where was a great but primitive magic using empire that had at its capital a city known simply as the Imperial City at the time. Only later was the city to be renamed Imperiapolis when various false Emperors named various sites as 'the Imperial City'. Now there were five Imperial Cities, at least in theory, and much confusion about the real order and names of such. The discovered clue was a series of maps and notes indicating loosely the hidden location of something called the Corenomi of Fates. This was most strange for this ancient artefact of power was actually part of the ancient history mythology of the Kurikondi home world of Kirndu.

 

Somehow the fate of Kirndu was tied up with the fate of Mundus. They also had odd things in common.

 

The slavegirl nodded and then smiled. "Lady Jurikarasis begs your forgiveness. She was in the middle of a vitally important meeting of minds, a psychic conference, when she gained knowledge of your arrival. Matters are complicated and the balance of power is teetering towards large scale war again. None want to see this happen, even it seems the Emperor who caused the troubles in the first place. The Emperor has used his discretionary powers to recall and nullify all of his recent edicts, wiping the slate clean. But now most Imperials have turned against him. To the the people of the Empire, the Emperor is now seen as erratic as well as meglomanical and brutal."

 

After previous acts of the new Emperor only a minority had still supported him whole heartedly as the only real answer to the ending of the War of the Five. Then they also had turned when the Emperor suddenly began evoking mad edict after mad edict that threatened to rip the still fragile empire apart. Now only the Emperor's cronies, followers and puppets still supported him.

 

Lady Jurikarasis would meet her soon as was possible in the small personal office set aside for Martina right next to Martina's bedroom and with a connecting door.

 

Martina sent the slavegirl off to fill a bath with warm scented soapy water.

 

For a time she sat sipping herbal tea as she considered matters. She had a very troubling feeling that not all was what it seemed, that the Emperor was not as erratic or as insane as many people now considered him to be. The mad rush of stupid edicts that he had thrown out but then had just as quickly revoked, may have been a decoying action of some kind. Recently the minds of many powerful, wealthy and influential groups and individuals through the empire were drawn to those events. In doing so had they missed far more important events taking place elsewhere that were centred more directly on other actors than the Emperor or his people in Imperiapolis?

 

She had no real evidence, only conjecture that this was true.

 

Martina bathed with two slavegirls in a big semisunken bronze bath. They washed each other's backs and otherwise did relaxing and comforting things together.

 

To be continued!

[Maharg67]

Martina was born in Imperiapolis, back when it had been called the Imperial City, but had spent a year in an orphanage run by the Sisterhood of Compassion, followers of Gaigia the Goddess of the Cycles (of Birth and Rebirth), Healing and Compassion, who had been taken as the Goddess of compassion during the Dark Times including the War of the Five. Gaigia was an ancient long forgotten goddess who for various reasons had returned now as an important diety to Tamriel.

 

With the fighting there were many orphans and so orphanages rose to care for them and also many children who were only officially orphans but whose families could no longer care for them. The Imperiapolis Orphanage was a big old rambling urban estate of different styles of architecture that housed over ten thousand orphans, Sisters of Compassion and others including guards, orderlies, nurses and teachers. It had its own market gardens, a laundry service and workshops that older children worked at but they were not cheap labour being exploited.

 

Now she stood on a footpath across the street from the front of the great big orphanage. She wore all of her gear but did not have the backpack with her which was in the FARDIF.

 

From where she stood there was a long high brick wall topped with spikes and magic imbued gargoyle and other figures. Thanks to the rise of dark crimes of child slavery, of dark mage desires for virginal sacrifice and other threats, the orphanages had been forced to greatly increase their security.

 

It had grown dark and new style gaslamp poles lit up some areas. Street and foot traffic was lighter at this time but still flowed. She sensed less tension now but it was still there, underlying everything. People spoke in low volume about how a large oranganised movement was forming to oust the Emperor and to deal with the other three surviving false Emperors in their isolated strongholds. One complaint about the Emperor was that he had failed to finally deal with the Three False Emperors and instead had focused on his large scale public work projects instead.

 

+ Lady Jurikarasis' failure to meet with you as promised and her sudden departure from your new urban estate had you follow her but only until she entered a small taylor's shop. Then you came here?

Again it was the warm female voice deep in her mind.

 

This time she answered directly deep in her own mind.

= Lady Jurikarasis is of the Jurikarasis Family who used to own the city estate. The family fell to misfortune during the War of the Five when marauding deserters looted and destroyed their largest and most important farming estate. Something called the Destiny Corporation bought up the property but then allowed her and her close family members to remain in the city mansion as managers on generous wages and conditions. Since the Jurikarasis Family badly needed the money they could hardly say no despite hurt pride and what they considered loss of face. Lady Jurikarasis and five daughters staid in the city mansion while the rest of the family and servants went off to the farming estate. Then came Kurikondi and Opisori to the mansion, invited there while being informed by a mysterious source through reliable channels that they were to have the mansion estate until the Champion of Fate would arrive.

 

+ You picked up a pattern?

 

= As you know, the Kurkondi already had the answer. Are you testing me with questions that you already know the answer to?

 

+ No, I am just providing a wall for you to bounce your thoughts off.

 

One of the slim leather books that the Kurikondi had given her was a series of reports to the Kurikondi Leadership on various important subjects. She had quickly read and absorbed all of the book's contents after her bath while sitting fully geared up in her private office. Martina had ended up storing all five books in the desk-booth inside the FARDIF and taking some extra items, all small but special, from there.

 

It had turned out that Lady Juirkarasis had been consistently stealing monies from the estate in the order of about a hundred golden a week. This was only a realtively small amount of the monies flowing through the city estate thanks to the various commercial enterprises run through and from it but the Kurikondi were offended. Yet they were surprised that the stolen monies did not go to the Jurikarasis Family but to the Sisterhood of Compassion and the Imperiapolis Orphanage. Thus they did not strike out at Lady Jurikarasis but sought to find out how they might seek justice while not punishing the orphanage. For they also supported the orphange to the sum of ten thousand golden a week.

 

A couple of figures came pacing along the footpath on the other side of the street and Martina was quick to note that it was Lady Jurikarasis poorly disguised as a working class woman in a cheap night-robe but the other, an older but beautiful woman in the fashionable leathers of a gladiator, she did not know or know of. The gladiator moved like a very good fighter. Gladiators did not truly kill each other as they did once but fought though clever projected magical illusions that did 'kill' other such illusions. Such fighting brought real pain and the false deaths brought much pain so gladiators still had to be very tough and very good to survive. Such illusionary deaths meant that the waste of so many lives had ceased and the empire gained many more experienced fighters when they were needed.

 

A small gate opened in the orphanage wall and through this the pair vanished.

 

Martina slipped across the street, easily dodging the light traffic as any Imperiapolist might who was used to such things. Then she was strolling along side the wall and wondering just how she might get inside the orphanage grounds. Not only did she have only a few misty memories of it from the point of view of a baby but the orphanage had been greatly changed since she had lived there many years ago. The wall was new for the older one had been both shorter and thinner. As she strolled along she could sense powerful magic protecting the orphanage, much more than she would have thought would be done for an orphanage.

 

Another report in the Volume of Reports, had been about the orphanage and how the Kurikondi had come to realise that much more was taking place in that establishment than they had previously observed or had come to assume. Assumptions were dangerous in the sneaky world that the Kurikondi thrived in and serious questions were asked not only of the orphanage but why local Kurikondi agents had failed to realise that something was amiss.

 

It was at that moment that she felt a strange lurching feeling that she experienced of mind, body, spirit and psychically. Yet all around her people did not seem to realise that the very fabric of reality was being altered in some fashion.

 

Then she vanished, she simply winked out of existence and around her nobody seemed to notice.

 

:mage:

 

To be continued!

[Maharg67]

One moment she was not in the sewer tunnel and the next she popped right out of mid air as if she belonged there. Thankfully she found herself not in flowing sewerage water speckled with floating horribles but on a wide stone area of which there were many in those great and amazing sewers than nobody could quite remember just how they had been built and when; not that Imperial Sages and scholars often admitted to this ignorance and many fine historical theories had been put forward as truths.

 

Martina looked around at what was a fairly typical Imperiapolis sewerage tunnel. It was big, surprisingly well made and complicated. Once it had been the home of friendly magical creatures called gobbits being goblin like creatures but that was in the Lost Age, the period of history now concealed from those who lived in the world, the period of time removed as if it had never existed or seemingly so. Goblins had moved in but only after the rats had done so along with other hostile critters.

 

How she knew this she did not know.

 

Then the first Quest came back to her mind most strongly that was to discover the truth behind the facade of the Imperial City that was now called Imperiapolis.

 

Of this Quest the first subQuest meant that Martina was to discover the secret of the sewer network beneath the city and why it had been constructed to be so large and so elaborate. Also why did it almost seem like a second hidden city beneath the other, even below the so called basement city where many folks now dwelt in a maze of tunnels, chambers and other spaces. What of the strange and sometimes horrifying mysteries of the sewers such as people vanishing, strange dead bodies being found that were never identified, the constant tales of secret places, of secret treasures and sometimes the brief appearance of strange creatures, not all of them of evil intent. Most often there were odd sounds, smells and other sensations, some of them psychic or even a combination of impressions.

 

They had started doing so when magical warfare had meant great big fireballs, sparkballs and other weapons were hurled at the city. Summoned flying monsters, magical flying devices, winged flying folk and even flying mages with magical wings or just powerful spells, all had made the open city less safe.

 

People had moved into the sewers to harvest the thick green fungisoo, mossiko and crazy makoshooms that grew there seemingly as a side-effect of too much aggressive and powerful magic being used in the city. These strange growths fed off the sewerage and dead critters. Magical masks helped with the horrible smells and the Sewerfolk otherwise learned to work well with the disgusting environment. Goblins had been driven from most areas, rats persisted, mudcrabs were wiped out, and other critters were dealt with.

 

But where she was she could see greyish night-visioned but there were no lights, no signs of people or any life, not even rats or goblins. There were growths of green glowing fungus like fungisoo, grey glunky moss like mossiko and big lumpy clusters of purple black vaguely mushroom like makoshoms. Yet they only covered fairly small areas as if something in the area was holding back even their amazing growth.

 

Nor were there any Imperial Sewerage Service metal navigation signs and other works as being done by one of the Emperor's big public works projects, no Sewerfolk emblems or other marks or even any crude nasty goblin markings.

 

Suddenly there was a shout of rage and terror both in the gutteral tongue and harsh throaty sound of a goblin. Five basically armoured and armed goblin warriors came pelting around the corner of a tunnel intersection. They had one look at her and kept on running. She stepped back and away from them. One sneered at her and spoke in goblin tongue as the five squat green humanoids ran past her. "She will draw the monster to her and we will get away from this accursed place."

 

Martina spoke back fluently in the same tongue though she was quite sure she had never learned any of the goblin languages, even this one that was common through out Tamriel. "Not so easy, goblin fools, for I sense danger in the direction you are running. I am Kurikondi and I should know."

 

The goblins came to a halt in a clumsy fightened group but snarled in a very unconvincing manner as if to prove to her how tough they were. Then the one who had spoken, she grinned at the Kurikondi. "You not smell like true Kurikondi. You only be one of those orphans they take on. Still, you smell of power. Yes, even we goblins know of Kurikondi and your poor little orphans. All those lovely munchy orphans we would eat. Perhaps we can make a deal."

 

At that she snorted. "You stop pretending to be goblins and I will consider it done."

 

The goblin who had been speaking then lost his savage grin and smiled rather sweetly. "How you know we are gobgoblins and not goblins? Who and what be you that you know gobbits bred with goblins so as to better hide in the sewers as true goblins?"

 

At that she smiled right back at the five now quite friendly creatures. "I am Kurikondi of the name of Martina but also I am the Champion of Fate! Do gobgoblins dwell here now in this part of the great Imperiapolis Sewers? I thought you preferred the sector beneath the Elven Gardens because the urbanised elves and elf-human hybrids there both know of you and even deal with you on a friendly basis. You made a mistake in showing that you 'smelt my power' for goblins could not do so with me except a few rare ones and you are not one of those. As for the Kurikondi orphans, do mere goblins know about them?"

 

"No, I was foolish in that I sensed you were trustworthy and went on pretending anyway." The gobgoblin shrugged. "We have an uneasy truce with the goblins and they are fearful of us and our powers, our greater intelligence and our special hidden weapons. But sometimes they come to us for assistance in exchange for information and loot they have gathered through out the sewers. It is amazing what goes down toilet holes, especially those new flush toilets of the wealthy and new public toilets. Goblins have been disappearing in this area, not just individuals or small groups but at least one whole tribe including its chief and shamans. Even rats and other tough critters have become more scarce here. So we five came to investigate in disguise as goblins. How did you come to be down here? We had to get past many locked grillgates and solid metal doors using skeleton keys our people made long ago."

 

She shrugged as she looked around. "Reality flickered and I vanished from outside of the orphanage to appear here. You may find that hard to believe. I suggest that we focus on dealing with the current threat."

 

"We gobgoblins have also sensed these flickerings of twisted reality and we are most concerned but we are not the only ones." Now the gobgoblin lifted up what looked to be a basic iron sword and it shimmered so that it was now a magical silver alloy sword of fair power. "All we have is magical but the monster that approaches, the thing that is covered with layers of hardened sewerage and bits of dead flesh of many creatures including humans, orks and others, it seemed resistant to our power. It is confusing for we could not sense evil in it though it so displayed its horrible feasting."

 

At that she sniffed the air and then sighed. "The monster, as you call it, is an almost mindless scavenger that is naturally resistant but not immune to magic. It is known as a muckopus, a very silly name but an ancient one. It should not be here in the sewers below this city for its kind belong naturally to another realm, a distant realm. It would not have killed the goblins or others but only feasted on its remains which it would absorb through its skin. Its not displaying its trophies but slowly eating what it scavenged. This poor old thing is not the real monster."

 

With a surge of sewerage waters the muckopus came around the corner the fake goblins had come around but in the actual water. It swam slowly and steadily with eight great big octopus like tentacles and it was indeed covered with horrible smelling stuff. The creature surged along through the water and then came to a halt with another surge causing water to splash up against stone embankments. One tentacle rose up and reach out slowly, carefully towards Martina. She sighed and reaching out with a finger touched the very tip of the tentacle. It sensed power in her and it seemingly wanted to speak to her. Yet that was not true. The thing hidden inside the muckapus wanted to speak to the Kurikondi battlemage.

 

Hidden inside the bigger creature was a curled up creature of most astonishing nature for it was a curled up human like baby. Its starfruit like skinned and coloured body of green yellow patterning was curled up very comfortably and it clutched various furry things that wiggled around inside its arms. Other things like little jellyfish-octopuses tended to her needs and to the needs of the muckapus. Her eyes were firmly closed but this did not stop her from communicating with Martina for this was a baby of the living gods of the world of Cartorari. Cartorari orbited the same sun as did the world that held the continent of Tamriel on it as did the home world of the Kurikondi. Their peoples all had the same sun rise and fall but the moons were different of course.

 

The baby Cartoriata wanted her mother and wanted her now! She had taken a nap in her pet muckapus while her mother was off bathing in a larva pool when suddenly, very rudely, they had found themselves in the sewer network of this very strange city. Cartoriate did not need or use buildings, did not have such as cities and certainly did not have sewers. Patiently Martina calmed the baby down, she had always been good with babies, and promised that she would get the small one, and her beloved muckopus, back to mummy, and the rest of the family including big rotten sister who never let the baby play with her toys. The baby and muckopus both could sense danger in the form of undeath of some kind, of a putrid antilife existence.

 

Jata'Tooti, the gobgoblin leader, nodded. "We failed wisdom when we mistook appearances for reality and assumed that because we saw it as ugly that the muckopus was the evil here but now we are being more aware we sense now this is far from the case. The evil is still out there. We must stay together." The gobgoblin gently stroked the tip of a muckopus tentacle, neatly avoiding any very awful substance sticking to it, as it reassured the creature and through it the baby inside it. "But where to now? The evil is in all different directions."

 

The cold voice spoke deep in her mind.

- You have gained one thousand golden, one thousand tradecredit and one thousand fatecredit along with one hundred lesser fate-wishes, one hundred disklings and one hundred fate-items. There are also ten fategolems, ten fatedans and ten fateeggs along with one greater fate-wish. Use your resources with logic, wisdom and awareness.

 

Before they could move the first of the evil appeared. Zombies came lurching around a corner that were once goblins. They still had armour on them and bits of other gear but they did not use weapons. These most basic of the undead were reliant on ripping, tearing and bashing with unnatural strength. Yet they also drew on life energies as they attacked but only in a minor fashion. There were dozens of them in clusters. They came along the dry raised areas and through the sewerage waters both. Guiding them was a powerful hidden and dark intelligence full of fury and, surprisingly, fear. It was hidden from normal senses but all in the group could sense it.

 

The zombies attacked!

 

The fighting was savage. Martina hurled a flashbomb that exploded with a burst of flame and light causing zombies to burn away as if by very fast spontanious combustion. Only bodies burned away and gear fell to the ground or into the awful brown waters with a splash. The living god baby was highly intelligent, in a baby fashion, and projected power through the muckopus. The muckopus stretched out tentacles and from the tips shot energies like flickering red yellow orange lightening best designed to destroy the undead, especially lesser undead like these zombies.

 

Two gobgoblins fired off powerful composite bows, shooting magical anti-undeath arrows that thudded into zombies and exploded with flashes of flames and bright burning light. Each arrow would utterly destroy a zombie but also damage other zombies, sometimes greatly.

 

Then the goblin zombies were all destroyed.

 

Martina frowned softly. "That was just a test of our ability to defend ourselves. The hidden enemy is playing with us but we will prevail."

 

They had to!

 

:banana:

To be continued!

[dezdimona]

this is a very well written story! :biggrin:

[Maharg67]

Martina had a sense of where to go, felt herself drawn in a general direction. The others followed until they came to an area where a bridge crossed overhead. Here skel archers, the newish name for animated skeletons, shot arrows at them. Arrows bounced harmlessly off the muckopus but the Cartoriata baby became angered that anybody would dare attack her 'ooky pooky'. So she dispatched the skels efficiently with pulses of glowing white yellow energy. The skels disintegrated into ash, dropping their basic bows and arrows onto the wide footbridge.

 

Again it was only a testing attack!

 

They turned away from the flowing sewer waters to go along a narrow winding hallway tunnel. Nothing attacked them there but as soon as they went through a grillgate into a bigger chamber, this changed. A mixed horde of zombies and skels advanced upon them, being mostly ex-goblins but there were big ex-rats, some ex-humans and other things. One skel wore the armour of an Imperial Cityguard and one skel was a former Bladeguard, once known as the Blades who once served the Emperors. Bladeguards were now little more than outlaws being isolated in their temple fortress in the north of Cyrodiil or so most believed.

 

The fighting was savage and a gobgoblin fell wounded despite the impressive fighting ability of these hybrid gobbit-goblins. They slashed and shot arrows, burned and cut with magic, hurled anti-undeath spells of many kinds.

 

The muckopus and its occupant burned down skel after skel, zombie after zombie, the muckopus smashing the enemy with flailing tentacles like great rubbery whips. Such was the force of the tentacles that the zombies or skels would be hurled through the air to smash into into each other or into walls.

 

Martina fought like a dozen normal deadly Kurikondi and smashed through cluster after cluster of these lesser undead with surprising speed, agility and strength. She summoned the spark-maiden who was soon cutting down the enemy with a sparkling longsword. Martina destroyed with elbows and kicking as much as she did with her bladed weapons. She moved with amazing fluid grace in what seemed like one endless move, never pausing and always using every action with utmost deadly efficiency. It was more of a dance of death and destruction than just a fighting style.

 

Then it was finished and the blue spark-maiden vanished to conserve and restore energy.

 

Martina healed the wounded gobgoblin but the quiet Nani'Nano would have to be more careful for a while.

 

Martina looked around at what remained of the attack. It was just weapons and armour along with other bits of gear, of clothing. Then she grinned mildly. "That was no mere test. We have caused concern for the hidden intelligence that directs the lesser undead at us."

 

The presence of the intelligence began to weaken as it retreated from perceiving them. Then they all sensed that it was gone. They had won, at least for the moment.

 

At that moment a sphere of sparkling rainbow energies appeared in the air above the muckopus and its baby occupant. Then two big tentacles reached gently down through it and picked up both muckopus 'ooky pooky' and the baby. Mum had found her baby and they all sensed the mixture of great relief, happiness and anger. Then only the rainbow sphere was there until out of it fell a whole clutter of stuff, a fair sized heap of it. The Cartoriata mother had just thanked Martina and the gobgoblins for helping to protect her offspring. Then the sphere was gone with a flicker.

 

A gobgoblin named Yuta'Tuki spoke then. "I will miss the baby and her ooky pooky though we just met."

 

Martina smiled. "I get the feeling that we will meet again but with a better prepared baby this time since the Cartoriata allow a fair deal of exploratory freedom for their young. Now I suggest that I energy store this mound of stuff and that we sort through it later, deciding who gets what."

 

Yuta'Tuki sighed as she looked at the heap of exotic metallic books, bladed weapons, odd tools, what looked like elongated crystal balls, heaps of odd glowing crystal coins and much else. "We will have to make sure none of this does more harm than good by being released onto this world. You Kurikondi do not come from this world but neither did our ancstors. Oh, I forgot you are an orphan."

 

"I have some Kurikondi blood and I know that the Kurikondi come from another world called Kirndu as do your gobbit ancestors though not your goblin ancestors." Martina shrugged as if her background was of no concern but the gobgoblins did not seem to be fooled. "We need to look for anything unusual, anything that makes this part of the great sewer network different from any other."

 

Jata'Tooti nodded. "This area is the very centre of concentration for most of those odd and often disturbing reports on strange incidents. That is people vanishing, strange noises, odd dead bodies, exotic creatures and much else. How and where will you store this stuff as... oh, I see by your eyes that you will not share that information."

 

Martina shrugged. "In a special form of transportation disguised as an every day piece of furniture somewhere in the city. This is new to me so I hope all goes well." She stretched out her hand towards the heap of stuff and focused her mind. It vanished with a sparkling shimmer.

This be continued!

 

:banana: