(continued from part 1)
Episode 53, part 2: Plot exposition with Yagrum Bagarn
Ask him if he knows of a way to somehow read another's thoughts, or to be able to think what they're thinking, or anything like that.
:
"Is it possible to read thoughts?" :
"Depends on what exactly you mean that, but sure. Any competant caster can see the energy makeup of your brain if they take the time to look. With a little practice it's not difficult to recognize patterns. Emotions are especially easy to read. You have to be careful though, because different races sometimes have different brain structure layouts, and sometimes entirely different structures. More of the khajiit brain is devoted to smell, for example, and a portion of their olfactory bulb sits in roughly the same place as where a dunmer handles motor control. If you're used to dunmer, a khajiit smelling something they like can look a lot like a dunmer doing something like juggling or balancing. In any case, knowing when someone is happy, or sad, or really enjoying a meal they're eating is different from me thinking 'Yagram you are one sexy devil' and you being able to know I was thinking exactly that. I'll give you a hint, though. I'm always thinking that.":
"What about full on telepathy?"Yagrum frowns, and doesn't answer right away.
:
"It's been done. My people were working on it when they disappeared, but I was in another dimension at the time, so I can't tell you for certain how successful they were. The Psijic Order beat us to it by a couple centuries though. We actually got the idea from them. And I'm sure there are daedra who can do it. In fact, I'd just assume that anything you think within sight of a daedric prince, they probably know about. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them could even read your entire life's memory in a glance."ask him about what he knows about the Nerevarine
:
"What do you know about the Nerevarine?":
"The who?":
"Lord Indoril Nerevar? The-"Yagrum suddenly goes pale.
:
"Yes, I know that Nerevar. You mean the prophecy of his return? I know only the superstitious nonsense I've read of that, but I can tell you the truth about the original Nerevar. Because I was there.":
"Oh?"Yagrum visibly cycles through several emotions. Pride, reverance, sadness. Then he speaks.
:
"That volcano you know as Red Mountain was once our capital. Vvardenfell. 'City of the Strong Shield' in dwemeri. This whole island is named after it. Vvardenfell, the bright center of all dwemer civilization. Vvardenfell, eyd domseti uus vednornam."His voice cracks and he shakes his head.
:
"At that time there were two native races in Dwemereth, the land you call Morrowind. My people, the dwemer, and the chimer, a race of elves now extinct. We'd never particuarly got along, but rarely did our disagreements need to be settled through sword and flame. All that changed when the nords invaded from Skyrim. They were a brutal people, burning down villages, slaughtering man woman and child alike. Our King, his Majesty Dumalacath, united our people together. The dwemer, under his Majesty, and the chimer...under Ashkhan Nerevar."Yagram laughs.
:
"I grew up hating him. When I was a child, the chimer were nothing but tribal nomads, struggling for a living at the feet of our great civilization. Nerevar united them. He turned them into a dangerous enemy inside our borders. They dared to call Dwemerth by their own name, Resdayn, as if it was their land. If it hadn't been for the nords we'd have destroyed them, but when faced with a mutual enemy, it was enough to force us to set aside our differences.""For all I hated him, he was no fool. 'Hortator' his people called him. General. King. Ashkhan Nerevar. If I'm to be honest with the benefit of hindsight, we all owe him a great deal. The nords had burned half of dwemerth to ashes and were at the gates of our capital when his army showed up. Most of us didn't know of the alliance and thought they were in league with the nords. But no, with their help, together we were able to push back the offensive and over the following months we slaughtered every last nord too stupid to leave dwemereth with their tails between their legs. Because of them, because of our hated enemy, we'd won.":
"What happened afterwards?":
"After the war, we were divided. Some of us wanted to honor our agreements with the chimer and live in peace. Some wanted to betray and enslave them. Others wanted to press our advantage and invade skyrim and eventually turn all of Tamriel into a united dwemer/chimer empire. Many factions, each with their own ideas of how best to act. One of them..."He pauses to sigh, the sadness clear in his eyes.
:
"...decided that while the agreement with the chimer people was to be honored, all other people of Nirn were to be subjugated. Not through conquest, not through treachery...but through religion.":
"Religion?":
"Yes. We made a god. High Lord Kagrenac, Chief Tonal Architect, the greatest engineer of my time...my teacher. We'd discovered the heart of the world. A great magical stone buried in the depths of the mountain. Some said we'd dug too deep. That it wasn't meant for us. But, we dared. Together with Lord Kagrenac, he and I crafted tools, artifacts of great power...Sunder, Keening, Wraithguard. Artifacts so great that any one of them could make a man a king, but to us they were merely tools. Tools to build a new god. A god we called Numidium.":
"The Numidium was a golem, right?"Yagrum bursts into laughter.
:
"Yes, much like the ocean is a pool of water and the sun is warm, Numidium was a golem. A golem a thousand feet tall, intelligent, capable of vaporizing towns, and crafted of dwemer bronze, no less.":
"You built the Numidium?"Yagrum looks at you wrly.
:
"No. I assisted Lord Kagrenac in the construction of his tools, but Numidium was his own doing. When I realized his true intentions, I left. It hurt to do. I loved him like a father, but I was young and idealistic. I'd seen our greatest enemies, the chimer, become loyal and true friends willing to fight and die at our side. What could justify marching on the rest of Tamriel to subject them in the way the nords had tried with us? I tried to talk him out of it. But he wouldn't listen. So I left. Completely left. I fled from Mundus into Oblivion, traveled through dozens of realms. I saw things both great triumphs and great tragedy. Until one day I returned, and found both my people and our newfound friends, the chimer, gone. In their place were only the dunmer, and the land we once shared now called Morrowind."ask him what he knows or suspects about their disappearance
:
"What happened to them?":
"Depends on whose version of history you read. What's generally agreed upon is that Nerevar discovered Lord Kagrenac's plans, and went to war against us. He and his generals Vivec, Sotha Sil, Almalexia and Dagoth Ur, laid siege to our capital, defeated our armies, and murdered his Majesty Dumalacath in his own throne room.":
"The same Vivec as the god Vivec? The same Dagoth Ur responsible for corprus":
"I presume so. Though they were merely Ashkhan Nerevar's friends and generals back then.":
"What happened after your king's death?":
"I only know what I've read, and what Divayth has told me. No two sources agree. By one account, the chimer had begged the aid of the daedric prince Azura, Queen of Dawn and Dusk. She, in her jealousy wanted the Numdium destroyed lest there be a new god to compete with. Nerevar promosed to destroy it in return for her aid against my people. But once he stood in the hallowed depths of our mountain he fell to temptation, took Lord Kagrenac's tools in order to steal Numidium for himself. Azura, in her rage, chose to honor her promise to Nerevar by destroying not only the dwemer, but also the chimer, fusing our two species into a single new, dunmer race.""By another account, Lord Kagrenac tried to use Numidium in the battle, but failed to control it and it destroyed us instead. Nerevar then seized the tools, and he and his generals fell to disagreement over what to do with them. Vivec, Sotha Sil and Almalexia wanted to use their power to ascend to godhood. Nerevar wanted to destroy them lest his people share the same fate as mine. He trusted his youngest general but closest friend, Dagoth Ur to guard them within the mountain until an agreement could be reached. But, Dagoth Ur murdered him and sealed himself within the mountain to unlock their secrets for himself. The other three somewhow ascended to godhood on their own before Dagoth Ur could succeed, and Azura, in a jelaous rage of having traded one new god for three, cursed the dunmer people by darkening their skin and eyes, and giving them that horrible raspy voice.""There are a few variations on the tale. Probably only Azura could tell you for sure what happened that day."Does Yagrum have the mark of Azura?
:
"Yagrum, do you know anything about the mark of Azura?"He stares at the ground.
:
"You saw? No, I don't know why I have it. For a time I thought it was a sign of forgiveness and exemption from the fate of my people. I abandoned everything I knew rather than forge Numidium. But I'm not alone in bearing her mark. Divayth Fyr has one as well.":
"So do I."Yagrum frowns, then looks at you.
:
"So you do. How did I not notice that?":
"Well, you were sort of distracted by a pretty face when I came in."He laughs. You briefly wonder whether the pretty face he was distracted by was Uupse's or his own.
:
"Hahah, I suppose I was. Do you know what it means? Divayth says he's asked Azura many times, but she won't tell him.":
"I didn't even know about it until he told me I had it. He says it might not mean anything. That he's known lots of people to have it. The High Fane, Vivec, a good...oh. You must be the good friend he mentioned.":
"I'd like to think so.":
"I'm probably going to have to ask Azura, aren't I?":
"If you do, and she tells you, come back to let me know."ask him what he knows or suspects about their disappearance
:
"Forget the official accounts. What do you personally believe happened to your people?":
"Remember what I said about how we were working on telepathy? I think we succeeded. The Psijics were a secretive lot. They wanted telepathy to give them an advantage over everyone else. The people we had working on mind magic, they were more idealistic. They didn't want to exploit other dwemer, they wanted to raise all of our kind to a higher level. Rather than developing techniques to allow individuals to read the minds of other individuals, a few of us were trying to give all dwemer everywhere the same ability. So if you ask me, one day some dwemer figured it out and gave every one of us on Nirn at the time the ability to instantly share thoughts with every dwemer on the planet.":
"Then what?":
"Then, I don't know. Either we all collectively turned to dust or we became a singular hive mind and ascended to a higher plane of existence.":
"What about you?":
"Me? I came back to find my friend and family gone. All of them. All of us. No bodies, no answers...just empty cities full of animunculi doing whatever it was they were doing before it happened.":
"I'm sorry.":
"Me too. I didn't take it very well. And by 'didn't take it very well' I mean I went completely batshit insane. Don't really know how long. My memory of that time isn't good, but I have centuries of missing time. Best I can figure more time passed here than where I was, but I don't know by how much. It's possible I spent 500 years in a daze being kept alive by the corprus. Might have stayed that way forever, except that I started hearing voices in my head from some crazy god calling himself Dagoth Ur, asking me to come to Red Mountain to help him build a second Numidium and offering me the world if I did. By then I was in bad shape and it sounded like a good deal, so I went. The buoyant armigers found me trying to claw my way through the Ghostfence and they brought me here. Divayth and his companions nursed me back to sanity and here I am."It occurs to you that you still don't know for certain that the voices you hear aren't Dagoth Ur too. Or a daedric prince. Or something similarly dangerous. You remember very clearly one of them telling you to sell your soul to Clavicus Vile a few weeks ago.
give him the dwemer toy
Don't forget to give him the dwemer puzzle before leaving.
:
"Oh, I almost forgot. Divayth asked me to give you this."You hand him the puzzle. He gleefully takes it turns it over in his hand, then suddenly frowns.
:
"Something wrong?"Instead of answering, he quickly turns and twists it a couple time and it pops open. He pulls out two small rolled up pieces of paper from the inside, and reads them. In the middle of reading one, you notice his eyes dart up to look at you for a moment before looking back at the paper. After finishing, he nods to himself, pulls out a quill and writes a response on one of the papers, rolls them both back up and puts them back in. Then a couple twists to the cube and he hands it back to you.
:
"What was that about?":
"It was about you. Nothing you need to worry about. When you next see Divayth, give him that.":
"I don't know when I'll next see him. I wasn't necessarily planning to go right back up to talk to him. It might be weeks.":
"That's fine. If you get eaten by a guar or something, then it won't matter if he never gets my response."You're a little uncomfortable with that answer, but you get the impression he won't be explaining in more detail.
As you make your way through the area, one of the afflicted sees you staring and nods as if to say hello.
What's going on here? Ask what's going on here.
:
"By the way, what's the deal with the mushroom city here and why are the inmates not attacking us?":
"I thought I asked you to call them guests."You turn around to see Uupse standing behind you.
:
"How long have you been standing there?":
"Only just now. Cinia's waiting for you upstairs, by the way. You know you shouldn't keep a lady waiting."You glance at the sun. It's fully over the horizon now. You'd better hurry if you want to catch that boat.
:
"To answer your question, corprus doesn't turn people into monsters. But the growths are unpredictable. As you can see, Yagrum lost his legs.":
"Might have to cut out my instestines pretty soon too. I've got a good 50 pounds extra in there by now.":
"Some aren't so fortunate. When growths occur inside the skull...":
"It makes them go insane?":
"The voices don't help either.":
"Dagoth Ur?":
"Or so he claims.":
"So you care for your guests, give them a place to live, and some of them despite looking like zombies are actually totally normal?":
"That's very kind of you to phrase it like that. Thank you."Yagrum laughs and slaps you on the back, knocking you to the ground.
:
"Hahaha...oops. Little weak there, aren't you? Well, I meant to say thanks. Always good to have someone to keep me company that doesn't think me a monster, even if they are an alien. But you've a date.":
"She's just giving me a ride.":
"Oh, second date then."You laugh, say your goodbyes and make your way back to the exit. On your way out of the village you pass a couple corprus....guests. You wave and smile, they wave and smile back. Which makes it all the more terrifying when you 30 seconds later run into one of the insane ones who walks up and takes a bite out of your arm.
Health is now 43/61When you finally arrive in the entry room, Beyte waves and Cinia glares at you.
:
"Took your sweet time getting here.":
"I did say not to wait.":
"Right. Well, whatever. Let's go. Thanks for the meal, Beyte. It was delicious.":
"Oh, Michael. Father asked me to give you 600 gold for the device if you still wanted to sell it."Guess we have to decide that now. It's probably the only device of its kind in all of Morrowind, but if Fast Eddie's offer is still open, 500 gold would get you training for any one spellschool of your choice. Choosing a school might be tricky, but that could potentially open up massive avenues. Maybe. Eddie's training was being bottleneced by his ability to restore magicka, and you'd have to deal with the same problem. Still, you have 122 gold now. Plus 600 for selling the phone is 722, minus maybe 40 for assorted transportation costs, minus another 500 for training, that's 180 or so. Restore magicka potions were what, 30 gold each? It's been a while since you last asked, but you think that's what they cost. But then you'll probably also have to buy a spell, possibly a custom spell to train with. Just guessing, another 80 gold for that? Meaning if you want to keep enough to pay mage guild transport when you're done, you can probably only afford about 3 restore magicka potions. But at lower skill levels, that might be enough to be very worth doing. You expect the voices will have some input here.
How often does Cinia visit the island?
ask her when she is coming back
:
"Cinia, when you are next planning to come back this way?":
"Didn't have any specific plans to. Why?"The mod she is from places her at the dock here at Tel Fyr, so chances are she will be back often
:
"I just thought this was a regular stop for you.":
"No, I explained this already. I occasionally do runs through Tel Fyr as part of my business with House Telvanni. I'm only here today at all because some construction foreman in Molag Amur messed up a tower he's building and needed replacement seed crystals. Did you think I was a ferry? I specifically said I wasn't a ferry.":
"...umm, right. I think you did."
Level 8
Health 43/61
Magick 69/69
Armor rating: 4
27.3 Strength (20)
35.0 Speed (30)
37.3 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
33 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)
* Cellphone
* 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:
* Dwemer Puzzle Box
* 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)
* 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
Bearer of Azura's Mark
Bearer of scholarly acquaintance of Divayth Fyr mark
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
* One picture of you standing in Divayth Fyr's study
* One, very jumpy 10 second video of you and Divayth waving the phone around inside his study
What do you do?