User:Goblin lair/The Battle at Bruma

Chapter 1: Orders

It was an early Morndas just like any other Morndas before. Captain Burd, a strong middle-aged Nord man, was sitting in his office reading a report from the countess, in the report it said:

An Oblivion gate has opened just outside of Bruma:Get your guards there immediately! And if you need to, ask for reinforcements from anywhere. If you cannot stop the daedra they will destroy the city! Signed: Countess Narina Carvain.

Burd picked up a quill and some paper and started writing a letter to Jauffre at Cloud Ruler Temple. He wrote quick and sloppy and gave the letter to one of the guards and told him to deliver it to an old man named Jauffre up in the temple in the Jerral Mountains.

He put the quill back on the table and equipped his axe, went out to the guard quarters where some guards were still sleeping.

- Up and shine men! He shouted out in the large bedroom.

- Time to kill some monsters!

The sleeping guards almost flew out of their beds and started dressing up in their arms and armour while Burd was still shouting out sentences to clear the guards’ heads of fatigued thoughts.

When all of them were fully equipped with weapons and armor, they marched out with Burd in the lead, towards the newly opened oblivion gate.

They arrived outside the gates minutes later. The first thing Burd did was picking up his stool, placed it right in front of the oblivion gate, had a seat and said:

- You three! He pointed at three of the fellow guards: Pick up the poles and get that barricade prepared. Then, he ordered the archers: Get over there and cover those guys. And again, he pointed at the three guards that had started putting the barricade together.

- And the rest of you. He turned to the last five guards and continued: You can start a fire and put the camp together.

-Yes Sir! The Guards replied.

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Chapter 2: The First Gate

Meanwhile in the fortress of Cloud Ruler Temple, Jauffre just received a letter from a tired Bruma guard. He had a really bad feeling growing in his stomach when he opened the letter and read:

Oblivion attack! Help! Send someone! We can’t hold much longer! Love Burd, Captain of the Guard (Bruma)

Jauffre read the strange letter again and thought the text through carefully. Then he had a good idea: Now he didn’t just have the blades… He had that other guy… the one that had closed oblivion gates before and wasn’t needed in the Fortress. Yes this was a good idea, he thought.

He went out to the Great Hall and found the one he was looking for talking to Martin.

- Oh hello there! Jauffre said, And he continued:

- Well, I have received reports from Captain Burd in Bruma. It seems they are under attack by the forces of oblivion. Could you take care of it? Good, you already know how to close the gate so get on with it! He turned around and left quickly.

- Ok… that sounded kind of important. You might should go and take a look at the situation; they might give you a reward. Martin said.

- Hope so, I mean I have closed a lot of gates but they only know of the one at Kvatch. There my reward was the title: The Hero of Kvarch, and I got a guard uniform that I don’t like, it itches. The man answered.

- Well then, get going! You won’t get a reward for just standing there. Martin said and he left the room with the Mysterium Xarxes in his hands.

The man just stood there for a moment… and looked after Martin who went through the doors to the left wing and his bedroom. Then he turned around, ran through the right wing, down to the Armory where he put on some Blades armor and picked up an Akaviri Katana, he then left the Armory and soon the fortress was also behind him. He jogged down the road, heading the large red glowing thing at Bruma, the Oblivion gate.

He arrived at a little camp placed in front of the oblivion gate. In the camp, he found Captain Burd sitting on a stool.

- Well it was about time that someone finally showed up, I am getting tired of seeing my men get beaten up, we have only fought for one hour and have already lost five and they've taken them away from here. Let me go and prepare the men. Burd said as the man coming down the road approached.

Burd stood up and walked to the guards by the barricades several of meters away. A few moments later he came back and continued:

- Okay, they are warmed up, two of them will come with us. The rest will stay here to prevent the Daedra from entering the city. Shall we go?

- All right, I shall lead the way. The other answered.

- Follow me.

He, captain Burd and the two guards walked into the oblivion gate.

As they arrived in oblivion, Burd asked:

- What is your name? I have never really understood that… I mean, your real name isn’t “The Hero of Kvatch", right? Tell me a little about yourself.

- My name is Ulriz Cassus. But why do you ask this now? The man answered.

- Well I might don’t have a chance to do that later. I am Burd, Captain of the Bruma guard, if you didn’t know that. That man there, he pointed at the guard walking in front of them, is Lue, he’s a Redguard, and on your right, he pointed at the guard right of Ulriz, you have Lexus Tiberius, an Imperial, he doesn’t talk so much.

They were walking down the rough path towards the great tower. All of a sudden they heard a strange sound from behind some rocks, Lue, the Redguard, sneaked forward to the stones and peeked around them. Out of its hiding behind the stones jumped a little demon, a Scamp.

- Oh dear. Burd said.

The scamp jumped against Lue, and took a bite from his left arm. Lue screamed with pain and pierced the scamp with his sword. The scamp took a few steps backwards and fell to its “knees”, and just before it fell over, it released a scream, not with pain, but with anger. And then, it was dead.

- Lue, you better get out of here. Ulriz said.

- All right sir. Lue answered, and he turned around and ran off.

They continued their march towards the tower.

- What was that!? Lexus asked.

- What was what? Burd repeated.

- It was something behind the corner of the tower over there. And he pointed on the large tower.

- Well let’s find out what it was. Ulriz said and brought an end of that conversation, and he started to run.

After him came Burd and Lexus.

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Chapter 3: The Tower

They ran around the corner about two minutse later and found the scamp they killed a few moments ago. They recognized it by the sword, still piercing it. Behind it stood two dremora Kynmarchers, in their full outfit and their swords drawn.

One of them started to speak:

My Little friend here told me that a mortal dressed in yellow tried to kill him. Since you are the only yellow-dressed mortals here, it must have been one of you. We don’t know which one of you it was, so we just kill both of you, and your little friend too.

He looked with a bloodthirsty smile on Ulriz. Then with a little hoarse laugh, the scamp jumped towards Burd. Burd swung his giant axe and chopped the scamps head off. Ulriz and Lexus drew their swords and charged, with Burd in the lead.

The two groups collided a few meters in front of the big tower. Lexus who had run straight against one of the dremora got pierced, but the same happened to his target. Both of them fell to the ground, dead. Burd and Ulriz now fought the last present dremora. Five minutes passed without any hits and then, Ulriz managed to cut the dremora over the chest and it fell backwards, landed on the ground and stayed down.

They turned around and looked at Lexus, lying completely still on the ground, with the blade through his stomach.

- What a waste of life… and, he owed me ten septims, I will never get them back. Burd said, without any suggest of mourning for the loss of Lexus. Then he turned to the tower and said:

- Ok we have to get to the top so let’s get going, we don’t have the whole day… or is it night? I can’t tell, the sky here is so… strange.

- Yeah, let’s go then. Ulriz answered, and after one last look on Lexus, he followed Burd into the tower.

On the first floor there was a pool of lava and out of it beamed a giant flame, up through a hole in the roof and up to the next floor. Then Burd said:

- Well I am here to learn aren’t I? So... you go first.

Ulriz walked past Burd and took to the left and through a small stone door. Burd followed. On the other side there was a small ramp going upwards. They went up the ramp and through another door. There on the other side they found two dremora sitting on a bench, drinking out of large goblets, in front of the bench stood a machine spurting out blood, Ulriz had seen these strange things before. They were used by the dremora to regain lost blood.

Ulriz sneaked forward and waved Burd in. Burd sneaked as good as he could, not very quiet but the dremora didn’t notice. Ulriz counted on his fingers to three and then Ulriz stabbed one of the daedra and Burd cut the other one's head in half. Ulriz looked around, these towers looked almost the same, the door should be here somewhere, and then he saw it, the door was in the back of the room, to the left of where they entered.

They entered and were now standing in front of a red shining plateau. They stepped up on it and were instantly teleported to the top floor of the tower. They now entered the last of the rooms: the Sigillum Sangius. They walked up a grey, cave similar corridor, after a few seconds of walking they arrived at the entrance to the main sigil- room where the sigil stone was to be found. As they entered they heard quick steps above and then they saw dremora and scamps, running towards the stairs, leading down to them.

- You take the right stair and I take the left! Ulriz shouted to Burd.

Burd nodded and ran to the right stair. Ulriz ran up the left stair and instantly killed a dremora, it fell down the stairs and he jumped over it while he smashed the next one in the head with the sword handle, this dremora fell off the stairs and down onto a big red thing (The Punished), when the dremora landed, the whole red thing cracked and fell down through the tower beneath.

Burd was fighting what seemed to be the last of the defending dremora on the right stairway. Around his feet lay pieces of dead dremora. A few minutes later Burd appeared at the top of the left stair and soon all of the dremora in the Sigillum Sangius were dead.

- Let’s go get that sigil stone now, I am getting tired of all these dremora trying to kill me. Said Burd.

- Yeah, it’s just up these flesh ramps. Ulriz answered and they went up.

There they found the sigil stone floating around in the air, glowing like fire. Ulriz walked to the stone and picked it up. Suddenly a white light appeared and it blinded Ulriz and Burd.

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves standing outside the now-closed gate, on the ground in front of them lay Lexus. Ulriz picked him up carefully and brought him to the camp where the rest of the guards had gone to sleep. He put Lexus on the ground at the bonfire and drew a rug over him. Then Ulriz laid down in a bedroll, and fell asleep.

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Chapter 4: Allies for Bruma

Next morning Ulriz was sitting alone on the stool that Burd had placed there the day before, the guards had left the camp earlier to take away Lexus, he smelled, they said.

It was a sunny and rather warm day even though the ground was all covered up by snow, glimmering under the early morning sun. He saw a guard coming down the road from the Fort of Cloud Ruler Temple. A few seconds later the guard approached Ulriz, gave him a note and continued running towards the city gate. The note said:

I got bad news get back up here and we don’t have much time, I explain when you get up here. Jauffre

The letter was very untidy. Ulriz could see Jauffre hadn’t given the note much time. But since the note said that they were in a hurry, he rose and started a fast walk up the long cold road to Cloud Ruler Temple.

About an hour later, Ulriz arrived at the stronghold. He entered the great hall where he found Jauffre.

- Oh! Good that you have finally came! Jauffre said when Ulriz approached and he went on:

- You see, I don’t think that was the only oblivion gate to be opened here around Bruma, I believe they think Martin is in Bruma. That’s why I want you to travel to all the greater cities of Cyrodiil and ask them to send soldiers here to Bruma.

- Why me? Ulriz asked with a tone of fatigue in his voice, he wanted to know why he had to do everything.

- Well, we have other things to do: Sleep, sit, talk to each other and not to you, pretend to be busy, sleep, eat, drink, read, walk, and train. Jauffre replied.

Then with a more rushed tone Jauffre ended the conversation by saying:

- Well, now you must be off or you won’t have enough time. (!)

- Eh… ok, bye… Ulriz said. Then he turned around, and walked out again.

He now had a few days, maybe months to gather troops for Bruma, still, he would rather switch places with one of the blades, testing chairs and stools and pretend to be busy, was something he hadn’t done for a long time.

Notes

• This is the end of the First Book but I will write the second one in the "close" future - Goblin lair, 6 September 2008

• The Second Book is started, take a look at it here. -Goblin lair, 14 November 2008