Game Epic of Stories

[Maharg67]

I made an earlier reference to something called the Maharg13 but I have removed it. The name may be used, in future, in the story.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Two 7.1[9][68]

"We were the Gamers13 sent to begin the great play of the Great Riel Game." JorziA13A sat on the CloneEmperor's lap wearing her new robetunic that was a leathery outfit quite small and tight. "Hubmind has informed us that an unknown faction has intercepted all attempts to insert clones into Mundus by the so called Gamelords. They run the Great Games of some place known as Terrariel that is something like both Earthriel and Tamriel. We are somehow gaining, regaining, knowledge never taught to us or suppressed."

 

JorziA13A: "After the Genius13 were forced to flee from Earthriel, the supercontinent was in a weakened state, a mess. Nor did they have the 'super-hitech' of the Gameforce military forces that suddenly attacked Earthriel. Not that the Gameforcers conquered all of Earthriel; large areas remain under Free Alliance control and others are contested; there has been support for the Free Alliance Forces, some of it secretive, some of it most surprising in nature."

 

JorziA13A: "They call themselves the Gamelords but it is not known how real that name is for they are amazingly secretive about much, including the true nature of Terrariel. They did not create we netclones but stole that super-hitech from knowledge left, in Earthriel, by the Genius13. The three, former members of the Genius13, who returned to Earthriel are helping the Free Alliance fight the Gamelords and their brutal Gameforcers. What, if any, link the Gamelords have with the Great Enemy, we do not know. Nor do we know much about the so called 'Great Riel Game' that the Gamelords are supposedly setting up."

 

JorziA12A: "Our original quests were to assist MehrunesDagon, and his lesser daedra, conquer Tamriel. Instead the Eternal Guardian transformed our nature and diverted us to rescue from the MythicDawners. The MadEmperor knew about the assassination, before it happened, but chose to let you die for reasons we do not know of."

 

The CloneEmperor rubbed an area of JorziA13A's smooth, bare, back. The had been no, was no, and would be no sex between the clone-father and his clone-children. Or so he intended even though, in strictly scientific terms, they were not really his children. All of the Venturers131313 had become female for reasons that even they did not seem to understand.

 

The CloneEmperor sighed. "I really do need to speak to the MadEmperor. This is especially true now that I have transformed and am now fully of the True Dragonblood. That is not of diluted form as I used to be."

[Maharg67]

Two 8.1[10][69]

The Eternal Seeker, alias Lucky Eddie, fired a technomagical revolver-pistol, the quasisolid bullet killing a strange, pale off-white skinned sexless human like figure. The thing was some kind of jumpsuit wearing worker but armed with a zipdart-pistol almost identical to those had by the Bladers. The slim booted figure hit the concrete floor in that abandoned city that looked much like Imperiarna, including the WhiteGoldTower. There were other dead, jumpsuited, figures but most had been killed at least a couple of months ago. They wore the logo of something called the UmbTek but Lucky Eddie knew what the logo meant the UmbrellaTek Corporation of OldEarth, and Earthriel.

Eddie snorted. "Ironic, to think, that UmbTek actually started out making hitech umbrellas for the wealthy. Their armored umbrellas were popular as were their umbrella-guns but not their coffee making umbrellas. Notice how all of those dead humans are the same shape and height?"

A Blader spoke. "Are they clones of some kind?"

Eddie shook his head. "Quasiliving bio-constructs known as humakes. They lack the mindlinks that tend to come with clones, and other mind abilities, but they are very hard to kill. They can also be repaired-reactivated by UmbTek or any other faction using them who has the proper people and equipment-supplies."

 

Around them stretched broken buildings and crumbled statues of what looked rather like the Imperial Market District in Imperiarna. Except that there were some ruined vending-machines and, underneath some rubble, an half crushed electric motorized family sedan. They were old fashioned machines that would have been, in OldEarth terms, of the turn of the century (the 19^th Century to the 20^th Century).

 

The Eternal Seeker nodded. "Penny electromechanical machines of a basic kind; two big clumsy vending-machines and a vintage electric family sedan. This is not Terrariel of the Gamelords and their super-tech. The damage here only happened a couple of months ago but was done, I suspect, by far more advanced weapons than the locals have."

 

The Blader leader pointed to the dead humakes that had been there longer. "They have been looted and look at the damage. It appears to be the kind that is made by more primitive pyrokinetic projectile weapons."

 

The muffled sounds of more primitive guns began to be heard such as some kind of slower shooting guns and at least one that fired many bullets.

 

Lucky Eddie sighed. "There appears to be some form of local resistance taking place. We will need to go and see what is going on."

 

Then there began the muffled sounds of zipdarters, pulselasers and other advanced weapons firing.

 

They passed a half tumbled down diner where the long dead bodies of humans could be seen. They had been living men, women and children in clothing that was historically much like the machines.

[Maharg67]

Two 8.2[11][70]

They passed a large statue of a tall, impressive figure of a woman that seemed to have some features in common with Uriel Septim VII. The writing, that the Eternal Seeker soon translated, spoke of Empress Lizbeth Septim II of the United Kayriellan Imperial Commonwealth. They appeared to be on a, Tamriel like, supercontinent named Kayriel.

There were some intact buildings ahead and the skirmishing was between a group of humans, Mer, goblins and others on one side but on the other only humakes. The humakes were outnumbered but had advanced body-armor and weapons along with what looked to be some kind of lightly armored hovercraft; the vehicles were armed with support weapon turrets, on their roofs, but were mostly designed to carry soldiers and equipment-supplies.

Some of the defenders, most of them light brown skinned humans, saw the newcomers and went to shoot at them with bolt-action rifles and single barreled break-open shotguns. Lucky Eddie, and the Bladers, vanished away with a flicker of motion.

Lucky Eddie appeared, with a flicker of motion, beside a khaki uniformed man who was holding a big, powerful, bolt-action rifle. Eddie spoke in what he hoped was in a way best to communicate. "Do not shoot at us. We are here to assist."

The man was filthy, unshaven in the way that a normally shaven man was, and he turned to stare hard at Eddie. "You have the same kind of guns that they have, at least some of them have."

"Zipdarters are common to more than one world and, just as different factions here use the same kind of guns, so do factions on those worlds." The Eternal Seeker shook his head. "Why did they attack?"

The man scowled. "Because some drunken, raw army, recruits shot at a flying-machine with their rifles. Until then the intruders ignored us as long as we staid away from them as warned to do. The conscripts were executed but that did not stop the raids starting against our people. This on top of the spread of those living-dead things. The Commonwealth is shattered. Our airships, and biplanes, get burned out of the air. Our steam-trains, and steamboats, are destroyed. Still there is assistance arriving."

Lucky Eddie nodded. "UmbTek betrayed the peoples of Earthriel. They supported the Gamelords as soon as that invasion began. UmbTek first invented basic zipdarters. Question is why would they come here when doing so would cost so many resources?"

The man frowned. "I don't really know what you are talking about. Are you going to help us or not. There must be over..." Then he stopped for a silence had fallen. The humake enemies had vanished. "They must have been scared away."

"Humakes can not be frightened because they are not humans, not alive, no matter what they look like." Lucky Eddie gave a mild grin. "My comrades, Bladers, just dealt with them very quickly and very efficiently. Now we will assist you in other ways and you will provide us with vital information in return. We are here to carry out a quest but we can do that and assist you; I have a feeling that the two are linked."

[Maharg67]

Two 8.3[12][71]

They threaded through the city, that turned out to be only partly occupied by the enemy. Much of it was abandoned and a large part of it was still controlled by the Comthers, as fully Imperial Commonwealth Citizens were called. The non-humans had all gained citizenship out of gratitude from the Empress who was in exile in the Deepcity. The Deepcity was much like the Midcity of Imperiarna. That city was known as Imperiankat and was the seat of both the Imperial Court and the Imperial Commonwealth Parliament along with other important centres. The Imperial Commonwealth President was being held prisoner by the humakes, and their disguised masters, but as yet no attempt had been made to use him as a hostage.

They halted in a series of tunnel linked basements, some of the tunnels being rediscovered old ones and some being new. The local people were clearly having a hard time and obviously suffering from shortages. This was despite efforts both in the city and stuff being smuggled into the city.

Major Johnson Tidire studied the newcomers, noting the way that the Bladers stood motionless and yet every read to act. Lucky Eddie himself stood much the same way. "The best of our elite soldiers would fall before you in seconds."

Lucky Eddie gave a mild grin. "You are telling the truth but not the truth and nothing but the truth, Major! We can summon goods to assist your people. There are blankets, backpacks, boots, sets of clothing, ration packs, waterbags of water, lamps, lamp oil, concentrated healing potion, coils of rope, basic fishing kits, rolls of bandage, reams of parchment type paper, pen-ink kits, harps, horns, lutes, cooking-eating sets, timber axes, claw-hammers, and a few other items."

 

A younger soldier, his arm in a lightly stained bandage sling, frowned. "What we need are fancy weapons. Why not give us some of your fancy weapons?"

 

Lucky Eddie snorted. "We need them! When we found those dead humake soldiers, they had been looted. Did you not get their weapons?"

 

The Major shook his head. "Our people have not always been greatly kind to many of the non-human peoples. While we have managed to make peace with most, a few see us as the real enemy. There is an army of beastfolk who intend to take over the city, to destroy both the outsiders and we Comthers. There is a good chance that they killed the humakes and then looted their dead bodies. We will take everything you can offer us, especially food, medical stuff and blankets. We seem always to be running out of blankets, always hungry and sleeping it rough despite the bringing here of many resources."

 

The young man scowled. "It is obvious that the lesser creatures are stealing them. We humans should never mix with lesser breeds."

 

Lucky Eddie turned to the man and shook his head. "No, you are lying and you have something to do with the thefts!"

 

The Major nodded. "Erlingtan, here, is a member of the Pure Human League who are fanatics. We will deal with him."

 

Catdogs began to appear around them, with amazing speed. The catdogs had been sent out to do some scouting of their own and were returning as groups of three. Lucky Eddie turned to look into their eyes and soon his suspicions were confirmed as he gained impressions from their catdog minds.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Zero [13][72]

 

Those, in the tritranscube, were growing in number and variety. Not just the Venturers were the cause of this but people, animals, those were coming into Tritrans131313 as its very new official designation was.

 

Large areas reacted to lifeforms, acted along with them. Hoblins, goblins, noblins, gremlins and their kin were soon dwelling in a cave-system of fine quality. Humans, catfolk, dogfolk, orcs, Mer and others dwelt in a great dome chamber, in a largely underground town at is center, that was surrounded by a ring of greenery and waters. The tritranscube gained as much as it gave, often in subtle ways hard to explain.

 

It was no accident that the peoples who most came to live in the tritranscube where those who were mistreated through no fault of their own.

 

Humamer were Mer-human hybrids distrusted by many just because of their nature. The Empire made some effort to protect them, the Blades wiping out an attempt by the fanatical Thalmor to infiltrate the Empire and massacre any Humamer. The Thalmor saw the Humamer as living blasphemies against the supposed purity of Mer.

 

Wererats were the too often detested 'cousins' of other werefolk such as the infamous werewolves but also others like the werecats (not to be confused with the catfolk known as Khajiit who are actually more than one people), weresharks and even more exotic ones such as wereminotaurs.

 

There were others of even more exotic, hidden, nature!

 

The Venturers bothered nobody unless they caused trouble. Soon Sidometown had its own local Sheriff, Mayor, Leadership Council with experimental democracy, and even its own Sidometown Guards. The Sicavesfolk, of the Sicaves System, were soon trying to get as organized but with less success at first. Diplomacy, and trade, was soon flourishing between the Sidomefolk and the Sicavesfolk.

 

Imperial Prince Martin visited the tritranscube and was astounded that not only was it bigger inside than out but that it had phase-levels, time passed faster inside than out at different rates and other amazing features; it was not a miracle machine full of miracles and had its limitations.

 

SantaClaus, ToothFairy and EasterBunny fitted right into Tritrans131313's Open Sectors.

 

There were other types of Sectors, that most knew of even if they could not enter them, the Restricted and Closed Sectors, but there were the Secret Sectors; very few knew of the last, even knew that they existed let alone what they were. The Venturers heavily protected the Restricted, and Closed, Sectors but the Secret Sectors had their own security systems and safeguards.

Edited August 2, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Two 9.1[14][73]

Mahargiana, of the Eternal Guardian, now looked like a Blader as she led a Blader13 through the forests outside of Kvatch. They passed some small, isolated, Ayleid ruins that still looked to be in quite good condition and were so. There were the ruins of a farm, a left over from the Redsplash Plague that had swept across Tamriel about a century ago. It had killed only few but had made many quite ill. A large minority had turned out to be immune to the sickness.

 

Outside, of a crumbling farm cottage, was a cairn of stones with a red painted animal skull; it was a warning that the Redsplash had struck the farm. Mahargiana remembered, the Eternal Guardian, trying to assist the peoples against the plague. They had been allowed to intervene only so much but they had helped to save many lives. Yet there had been a cost that had come as a surprise when most assumed that the danger was all over.

 

Mahargiana spoke to the others. "The Redsplash Plague struck heavily in this area. Quite a few died here and others became mad and-or sterile. Fearing a curse had fallen upon the area, the locals fled; that is except for a few living on the fringe such as bandits, gypsies, hybrids and even some Wildmer (Ayleid?). Some faction deliberately released the Redsplash Plague but for what reason, was never discovered. Then a minority of strange children started to be born to parents who had been heavily sick with the Redsplash. Many babies were killed before the Divine Orders, and Imperium, intervened enough to stop the barbarity. For the odd children were not harming, trying to harm, anybody. The great majority of odd babies were given over to the Divine Templedom to look after and then they vanished from history; well so it seemed."

 

A Blader spoke. "What happened to those that were not passed over?"

 

Mahargiana sighed. "We, the Eternal Guardian, made sure that they ended up in a fine sanctuary along with those willing, and able, to go with them. We have tried to discover what happened to the babies given over to the protection of the Divine Templedom but failed for even they do not seem to know what happened to the children. Except now we have gained a lead. A Scholars Guild scholar was busy doing research on exotic diseases, of Cyrodiil, for an essay to help him get into the ImperialSages Academy. He came upon a battered personal journal of a herbal doctor who spoke of working in a secret underground place on children who were human in many ways but had strange abilities. In the notes he called them damphirs. Their descriptions matched those of the exotic Redsplash Children. Problem was that the herbal doctor only left initials and he vanished after a short stay in the Imperial City of Kvatch."

 

They were angling towards the great table top plateau on which was the walled city of Kvatch but not towards either the main way to get up there or the smaller, secondary way. There were said to be tunnels into Kvatch, as there were with all of the cities of Cyrodiil, imperial or otherwise.

 

She went on. "We are finding a way into the ancient Kvatch Undercity that has its own dark reputation. It is said to have a cursed Mer city that even the Ayleid kept away from."

Edited August 2, 2014 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

Two 9.2[15][74]

Mahargiana took them through a grove of tangling plants, of thick bushes growing unnaturally close together, and then into a well hidden clearing up against the cliff face of the Kvatch Plateau. The metallic stone entrance was very basic in appearance, with no clues to who or what had made it; the material had been favoured by the Grand Aldmer who had been one of the few peoples able to create, and work with, the substance. Others had vanished, even their names, in the Mythic Age.

Mahargiana opened a hidden metallic stone door, that looked like the back wall to a basic alcove like chamber. As the door opened a stench of stale air shot out at them along with some very unsavory smells. Then fresh air was entering the place and soon the group was following it in. The door slid closed behind them and they were in a big, grand hall, of a chamber of basic design. It was metallic stone with glowcrystal lamps filling the big space with dim light.

There were eight great big statues, the Eight Divines as they used to be worshipped; that is before Talos rose to be a Divine and then was demoted to Demidivine. They were mighty figures of metallic stone, reminding any visitors that the Divines could work the substance with even more ease than the Grand Aldmer had done.

Except that something was wrong for the statues were twisted in diseased ugliness and malignant hatred. Before each statue was a alter for humanoid sacrifices that were dotted with ancient blood stains.

Mahargiana spoke. "We, of the Eternal Guardian, tried to discover who-what created this place, how they did so and why. Great power was used to make these statues and there is the psychic-spiritual residue of evil deeds though there have been two strong cleansings of the place."

Something big shambled almost into visibility; it stood at the far distance of the chamber in shadow. Then it spoke with a great, low rumbling voice. "Mahargiana, I hope you brought the toffees, and other goodies, as promised. I am quite hungry and my belly rumbles."

Mahargiana smiled. "Yes, Humphree, I have brought some very good goodies for you and your friends. Bladers, this is one of Frankenstane's better creations being Humphree the patchwork animal."

[Maharg67]

Two 10.1[16][75]

Imperial Prince Martin Septim: "The living-dead experiments, the creation of living-dead armies, might be linked to just one faction but I am suspecting that it is a series of factions created to carry out certain purposes. That is that some powerful, alien, force has been behind this and it is not the Great Enemy for the Great Enemy is of the undead, is of the Great Undeath."

Martin had taken advantage of being in an area, of the TTC131313, where time went twice quicker than standard to do much study in shorter time; he had to sleep there to avoid exhaustion and otherwise staid there. Research materials had been sent to him and then people both assisting him and doing other work.

It had been the Venturers who had confirmed that the Great Enemy was of the undeath and not the living-death. Venturer scholars had been working in the same new research-development libraries as Martin was. There were also teachers, and students, but not in the classified areas.

Venturers had been introducing technological concepts to the CloneEmperor such as steam-power, railways, gunpowder guns, electrical lighting, piped gas cooking and others. The concepts needed to be incorporated carefully into how the Empire functioned. Gunpowder, for instance, did not go well with types of fire magic and electrical lighting did not go well with shock magic. The natural laws, of Mundus, had their own quirkiness and there were the magical sublaws that were allowed by the 'quirkiness'. Magical, or other, means would need to be found to protect new working technologies.

Martin was sitting at a big table, where a meeting of many researchers was taking place. "The pattern so far seems to be one of deliberately trying to hide any pattern. It has been very hard work to find even feint traces of living-death experimentation, of stories of necrolifen monsters, of any evidence that could point in that direction such as the vanishing of large numbers of freshly buried bodies in one area. A major problem is that necromancy has been far more common and too often leaves behind the same kind of clues. For example the theft of many freshly buried corpses."

Mahargiata, of the Eternal Guardian, was suddenly there, along with a chair that came with him, and he gave an impression of being just a little tired. "The only major living-death experiments, using such corpses, are those of the necromage reanimators, often known as necroreanimators. They are far from the most standard, common, kind of necromages. Necrowizard Frakenstane is the most well known, the most infamous, of them. I know where he is and I need to lead a group to rescue him, and his people. Yes, rescue, for he has decided that the Genius13 are quite criminally insane and are being led by a force that is far worse. He wishes to cooperate with us and to prove that his intentions were for the good, at least at first, until he fell under the seductive influences of the Genius13 and then of the darker thing that they actually serve. That is something called the ShadowEmperor. The name is one of the few things that he truly knows about it."

[Maharg67]

Two 10.2[16][76]

Mahargiata closed his eyes. "I will sleep for five hours and, during that time, you will prepare an expedition with the assistance of others. You will find that knowledge has arisen in your minds and a stack of documents has appeared on the table including books and maps. You need to also bring me the containment transcube, as found by the Venturers when they also found the first magiputer and a summoning-disk, and bring it here. I can open it though others, even the Venturers, have tried to do so and have failed. You will need at least five hours to prepare for there will be special preparations to be made. I will add to resources when I awake."

Mahargiana slept on a wide, flat, bed that floated about a metre above the floor of a mostly garden filled domechamber. ToothFairy, SantaClaus and EasterBunny took turns being with him as if guarding him from something but also keeping him company as friends.

The transcube was brought to a chamber, in the libraries complex, of the TTC131313.

When Mahargiana awoke he seemed much refreshed. SantaClaus gave him a small vial of special potion that he drank, EasterBunny gave him a small chocolate egg that he ate and ToothFairy gave him a softly glowing tooth that he used, somehow, to blend with one of his own to become one tooth.

The Eternal Guardian gave out items to members of the expeditionary group be they Venturers, Imperials or the five strangers, that he made appear, who were going with the group. He identified the women-men as RedSonja, Xena, Gabriel, Lancelot and Conan. They all wore powerful divine magical armor-arms but also had other such devices. RedSonja was fairly scantily clad in odd red ringmail-leather armor. There was the modestly plate armored Lancelot, a Holy Knight from a realm known as Camelot. There was the hulking Conan in his furs, skins and leathers. Xena, and Gabriel, wore stuff that was akin to Ancient Greek style armor of OldEarth that showed a fairly large amount of skin; Conan's gear did the same. They were all demigods, were all former mortals.

The transcube was expanded, doors opening in two opposite sides even as it reached a volume of 9x9x9 metres. Out came only one item being a telecube that looked identical to either a transcube or even a tritranscube. The telecube was bigger inside than outside but less so than the other kinds of devices for its specialty was as a transport. It floated out to drop gently onto a metallic floor of the tritranscube.

 

The group entered the telecube, after a few made last farewells to others there or made other last moment preperations. Letters had already been written and wills filled out. The exotic mechanism vanished with a soft sparkling shimmer.