(
GM Comment: This was a difficult episode to write, and required a couple rewrites for various reasons. A lot of suggestions were made that weren't acted upon because they didn't end up reasonably fitting within the flow of the narrative. This probably should have been a short, quick update, but it just didn't work out that way.)
Episode 49: Tel Fyr
dry up before going in, get any sand out of your hair, that sort of things
You're healed to full and your swim seems to have washed all the blood off your armor. Though it does have a couple gouges in the torso that could stand to be repaired. You try to straighten your hair a bit, but with no mirror and no brush all you can really do is shake the water out and slick it back. On the bright side, having lost your fluffy hat in the water, at least you won't have to worry about helmet hair.
ask Cinia if she's willing to give us ride back to mainland
asking boat captain how long she will stay in port and whether we can take passage back.
You turn to go back to the dock, but it seems that Cinia is off the boat and walking up the path towards you already. Hoping for the best, you pretend to be looking for something in your backpack while she walks up, and greet her when she gets close.
:
"Hello again.":
"Hi.":
"Did you...need me for something?"She raises an eyebrow.
:
"No, I have business in Tel Fyr. You're standing in front of the door.":
"...oh, sorry. Umm, so hey...it occurs to me it would be a lot nicer to ride back than to swim. Any chance you'd be willing to take me back to the mainland?"She shrugs.
:
"My next stop is Sadrith Mora. If you're at the dock when I leave I can take you with me. 20 gold ok?":
"Sure, I can do that. When are you leaving?":
"It will probably be a few hours. By dawn if I'm lucky.":
"So, you're not a regular ferry?":
"I do passenger and cargo transport from time to time, but I don't offer regular service to/from Tel Fyr if that's what you mean. This whole island is restricted.":
"We're not breaking the law just by being here, are we?":
"You are, outlander. I have council authorization."Let's go in.
Go inside
While you struggle to come up with a suitable reply, Cinia opens the door and the two of you step inside to the sound of two dunmer women, one in armor the other in clearly magical robes, arguing. Cinia waits to be acnowledged rather than interrupt. You follow her lead and do the same.
:
"-of the Council. Someone must act.":
"Divayth does everything he can to avoid involvement, but you're welcome to ask him.":
"You know he won't listen to me.":
"I also know you haven't tried talking to him. How long has it been? Five years? Ten?"With no immediate response, the woman in armor looks up and smiles at Cinia.
:
"Cinia? I didn't expect to see you back so soon.":
"Foreman said the enchantment on the crystals I brought him wasn't good enough. So Llunela will need another set.":
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I think Alfe's upstairs. But surely that can wait. Will you be staying for dinner? Who's your friend?":
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm on a schedule and Alfe will probably ask me to help her cut the crystals. As for him," she glances at you,
"just some outlander here to plunder the dungeon, I suspect. He arrived a few minutes after I did."At that, the one in armor looks motherly and concerned, while the robed one looks you over and laughs.
:
"At least this trip won't be a total loss. Do you have anything valuable on you? Your armor's worthless. Anything good in your bag?":
"Freyte! That's not polite!":
"Actually, I'm here to speak with Divayth Fyr. And Yagrum too, if possible.":
"Oh? Pity.":
"For Yagrum you'll have to pass through the corprusarium. I don't advise that. But Divayth's in the upper tower. You're welcome to see yourself up.":
"I'm headed in that direction. I'll show him the way. Thanks, Beyte."The two dunmer resume their argument while Cinia leads you up a ramp and through a door.
:
"What was that about?":
"I learned ages ago to not ask. Divayth's relationship with his daughters is...complex.":
"They're clones, right?":
"Is that public knowledge now? Yes, outlander. They're clones. And daughters. And wives. And probably some other things that aren't any of my business. Some of them are more accepting of it than others.":
"What about you? How come you know so much about the Fyr's?":
"Business brings me here from time to time. Beyte's a real sweetheart. We talk occasionally."Cinia stops in the middle of the corridor and looks up.
:
"You can levitate, right?":
"I have a potion."Cinia waves her hands and is engulfed in a swarm of purple lights, then begins floating up the shaft. You drink your levitation potion and immediately feel lighter. Weightless, even. You stand there for a moment before it occurs to you that you have no idea what to do.
Your feet have drifted slightly off the floor but you're not sure how to move in the direction you want to go. You reach your right arm down to put the empty bottle back into your coinpurse and the motion causes the rest of your body to rotate slightly in the opposite direction. Your toes are now out of contact with the floor and your body is tilted with the left side closer to the ground than the right. Maybe if you try to fly like superman?
You reach your arms up above your head and the motion pushes you back down onto the floor. You try to sink down with your knees to jump, but instead of sinking, your knees lift off the ground and your head and chest rotate forward. In a panic you kick downwards with both legs to get back in contact with the ground, then once you are, you push as hard as you can with only your feet and ankles. This propels you upward...slowly.
:
"Ok, I've got this."Since it seems like any motion from one part of your body causes the rest of your body to rotate around your center of gravity, you try not to move too much as you ascend the shaft. This isn't at all what you expected, but at least you're going in the direction you want to go. Curious, you try tilting your head up and inhaling, then tilting your head down and exhaling. You can't tell if it makes any difference. Then you reach out with both hands and press against the walls of the shaft. This stops your ascent. Pushing upward to make your body move down, you then pull down and let go, propelling yourself at a reasonable speed to the top of the shaft.
:
"First time?":
"Yeah. How did you do it? I didn't see you jump or grab anything like I had to.":
"It's different with a spell. More like flying. Potions are levitation only with no way to control where you go. Try never use one outdoors. You'll get airborne easily enough; in fact it's hard to stay on the ground, but once you're in the air there's nothing to push off of to get back down. Until the potion wears off.":
"I'll try to remember that.":
"Divayth should be down the corridor across the hall."talk to Divayth Fyr
talk to Divayth Fyr
talk to Divayth Fyr and find out what happened with Clover.
find out what happened to Clover
Cinia disappers down one corridor, while you walk around to the corridor she pointed out for you. It seems a bit more spacious up here than you remember, but once you're clear of the support structure Divayth is immediately recognizable in a full suit of daedric armor. You're reminded of the set that Vivec conjured for you so long ago. How heavy did he say it was? 300 pounds? Divayth doesn't move like he's encumbered at all by it.
It seems a bit strange that he has his back to the corridor, but you suppose there aren't many things on Vvardenfell that could do much more than inconvenience him. When you step into the room he turns, and you see that he's holding some sort of small box with both hands.
:
"Greetings, trav-"He doesn't finish his sentence.
:
"Hello, Divayth. I'm-"He sets the box down on his table and as you speak he walks up and looks you up and down, examining you.
:
"Excuse me for interrupting, but would you remove your armor?"Divayth Fyr is cool and completely deserves our utmost respect and honesty.
be careful about is minding our manners.
be careful and respectful in what you say.
You suspect this is not what the voices had in mind, but you also suspect he asked because he chooses to be polite...not because he was giving you the option.
:
"Umm, ok."You set your backpack on the ground and begin removing your armor. As you do, Divayth walks in a circle around you, examining you. After a full circle he lifts your chin with a finger, leans in maybe six inches from your neck and looks around at it. Not merely staring, but moving his head and eyes around as if to see your insides from various angles.
:
"You appear to be an Imperial."He takes your left hand into his and inspects it, turning it over a few times, individually examining each finger and your wrist, continuing to speak, as if to himself as he does.
:
"...not...seeing...anything."He takes your right hand into his and give it the same treatment.
:
"What did you say your name was?":
"...umm...Michael...sir.":
"Michael. You're not a daedra."Now he's hunched over, staring at your chest with a frown, giving it the same treatment he gave your neck: bobbing around as if trying to see your insides from all angles.
Don't lie, but be careful
:
"...not so far as I know, no.":
"And you don't appear to be...much of anything, really."He stands back up and looks into your eyes, still inspecting.
:
"You look like an Imperial. A rather ordinary one. Not even a caster, I'll wager.":
"Well, no...not really. I can see magicka. And I can channel. But I haven't learned any spells or anything.":
"Hmm."He frowns then shrugs and goes back over to his table and picks up the box and resumes playing with it while you put your armor back on. Now that you're up close, you can see that it's a metal cube about four inches to a side. He seems to be twisting and it and pushing at it. It kind of looks like a rubik's cube made out of dwemer metal.
:
"So what brings you to me, Michael?"quick update that shows Divayth's attitude towards us, and what happened to Clover.
find out what happened to Clover
:
"Well, if you have time I have several things to discuss that might be of mutual interest. But the purpose of my visit to to discuss a visitor you might have had recently. A dunmer by the name of Clover the Clever."He doesn't look up from the cube.
:
"Yes, last I saw her she was in my study in the lower tower."Not really an answer you were expecting.
:
"...so she's not dead?"Now he looks up.
:
"No, why would she be?":
"I...well, she has corprus, right?":
"Yes, but it's not immediately fatal. The inflicted routinely live for years and so long as the growths distribute in such a way as to avoid necrosis of crucial tissues, there's no need for death to result at all. I have a very few patients who are centuries old, possibly older than they could reasonably have expected to live without it. It's actually a very interesting condition, with a number of beneficial side effects. I hesitate to call it a disease at all.":
"Clover came for a cure. Were you able to give her one?":
"I offered an experimental treatment contingent on performing a small errand for me. She has yet to complete it."So that's it, then. Clover came, spoke with Divayth, he sent her on a prerequisite quest before giving her the potion, and she hasn't completed it yet. The question is, what to do now? You brought only one levitation potion assuming that you'd use divine intervention to leave. You can probably get down to the ground level without one. That vertical shaft you levitated up is small enough that you can touch both sides if you stretch your arms out, so you could drop your gear and armor down, then plant feet on one side and hands on the other and get down that way. But it's about 30 feet each way and you doubt you'd be able to get back up like that. You could of course stay here and talk to Divayth a bit before go, but whatever it was that captured his interest about you when you arrived seems to not be keeping his interest. You doubt you'll be able to get away with a full game of 20 questions like you did with Vivec.
Level 8
Health 61/61
Magick 69/69
Armor rating: 4
27.2 Strength (20)
35.0 Speed (30)
37.2 Agility (30)
40.1 Endurance (30)
42.4 Intelligence (40)
40.0 Willpower (40)
44.6 Personality (40)
57.0 Luck (50)
Numbers in parenthesis are starting values
32 Acrobatics (0)
22 Athletics (5)
7 Armorer (0)
6 Block (0)
7 Heavy Armor (0)
5 Medium Armor (0)
22 Light armor (0)
9 Unarmored (0)
5 Blunt Weapon
12 Hand to Hand
5 Longblade
6 Shortblade
8 Spear
7 Alchemy (0)
5 Enchanting (0)
21 Speechcraft (10)
12 Mercantile (0)
* Cruel Viperblade
* Chitin shield
* Chitin left + right gauntlets
* Chitin greaves
* Chitin cuirass
* Chitin left + right pauldrons
* Chitin boots
* Combat belt
* Commoner's shirt
* Commoner's pants
* Interior coinpurse, containing:
* lockpick
* 1 standard invisibility potion
* 1 potion of water walking
* 1 empty bottle
Backpack (Worn) (damp)
Main compartment:
* Tennis shoes
* 3 illegible water logged papers
* 1 illegible water-logged scroll of divine intervention
* Yellow water-damaged notepad with 54 pages left
* 1 pen
* "20% cooler" Rainbow Dash t-shirt (damp)
* Denim pants (damp)
* a cellphone and wallet with picture ID and $30 in cash
* 2 lesser soulgems (empty)
* 29 Whickwheat
Small compartment
* 122 gold
* 8 empty bottle
* 2 Ampoule Pod
* 1 Black Anther
* 7 bungler's bane
* 5 Chokeweed
* 3 Corkbulb
* 25 Heather
* 3 hypha facia
* 11 luminous russula
* 4 Racer Plume
* 8 saltrice
* 2 Stoneflower petals
* 5 spore pod
* 6 violet coprinus
Blades, Novice
Imperial Legion, Recruit
Fighter's Guild, Associate (1 quest completed)
Mage Guild, Associate
Registered Sadrith Mora business visa, with slave-handling endorsement
* Steel tanto, with scabbard and carrying straps
* Imperial steel Cuirass
* Apprentice mortar and pestle
Alit Hide [1]Resist Poison
Ash yam [1]Restore personality
Ampoule Pod [1]Restore speed
Black Anther [1]Resist poison
Black lichen [1]Drain Health
Bread [1]Restore Fatigue
Bungler's Bane [1]Drain agility
Chokeweed [1]Drain health
Coda Flower [1]Restore luck
Comberry [1]Drain health
Corkbulb Root [1]Restore luck
Crab Meat [1]Restore fatigue
Gravedust [1]Burden
Green Lichen [1]Night Eye
Heather [1]Poison
Hound Meat [1]Poison
Hypha facia [1]Drain speed
Kresh fiber [1]Cure common disease
Kwama cuttle [1]Restore health
Large kwama egg [1]Restore fatigue
Luminous russ. [1]Paralysis
Marshmerrow [1]Resist common disease
Muck [1]Poison
Racer plume [1]Levitate
Rat meat [1]Poison
Roobrush [1]Restore intelligence
Saltrice [1]Restore endurance
Scale [1]Swift swim
Scathecraw [1]Paralyze
Spore pod [1]Paralysis
Stoneflower petal [1]Fortify health
Sm. Kwama Egg [1]Restore Fatigue
Violet coprinus [1]Water Walking
Whickwheat [1]Cure paralysis
Willow Anther [1]Water Breathing
What do you do?