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The Story Collector

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2022 11:14 am
by Selene310187
You entered the tavern and found a leaflet on the table. Being curious about its content you begin to read it:
Hail adventurers traveling the land of the Nords!

I'm Scalez, a traveling magician and a collector of stories, your adventures to be precise. My dream is writing a book about the adventurers of our time someday.

So I'm stopping by at the taverns collecting your stories from time to time. Should I not be here when you want to talk about your recent or best adventures, I've put a small box on the bar. There are some papers and quills next to it. If you have problems with writing, don't worry, the innkeepers will help you. As soon as you've done writing, put the letter into the box. I will empty it on my next visit.

May you have many exciting adventures on your journey!

Sincerely,

Scalez the Magician

Next to the box the magician mentioned, you've found a painting of him:

[yes, it's a screenshot; I didn't find the time yet to actually draw him :sn-31:]


You look around but can't find him anywhere. So you begin to write about your recent or best adventures in the land of the Nords [i.e. your post in this thread] and draw some pictures to illustrate them as good as you can [i.e. screenshots].





>> Discussion thread <<


Recommended BBCodes for your adventures:
  • "floatl" and "floatr": the first one floats an image to the left and the second one floats an image to the right; the text is wrapped around the image
  • "box": forces a line break after a paragraph that contains a floated image
  • "imgc": it lets you embed an image (direct link) with a customizable image dimension.

Re: The Story Collector

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2022 2:30 pm
by Altbert

The Story Collector - Samuel's Story - Part 1

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2022 7:09 pm
by Selene310187
A few days later...

Scalez stopped by to empty the box hoping there are many stories inside.

He opened the box and only found a crumbled piece of paper and some breadcrumbs inside. Scalez took the paper, smoothed it and read it out.
'Contents moved to Floating Island of Legends - The Story'.
He looked confused and said "That makes no sense to me."
"Me neither." replied the innkeeper. Then after a moment he asked "You look sad. What's wrong, magician?"

"I wanted to collect stories about the adventures of the adventurers traveling Skyrim. But I only got this mysterious message on that piece of paper."

"Pardon me. Are you the Story Collector?" interrupted a Breton warrior.

Scalez nodded.

"My name is Samuel. I'm a Breton and a retired adventurer. Having a lot of free time at my hands now, I need a new occupation."

Scalez: "I'm all ears."
Samuel: "Can I help you with the collection of the stories?"

The Argonian reflected upon the Breton's offer for a short moment and gave him a short answer: "Sure, why not."

They seated themselves near the fireplace dicussing further details and drinking the best wine the innkeeper had to offer. After a couple of glasses, Samuel told Scalez everything what he experienced in the last couple of years as an adventurer or rather what he still remembered. His memory was not the best and it was quite possible that he could mix things up. Nevertheless, Scalez noted every word of Samuel's story carefully and questioned him from time to time if things are unclear for example.

Samuel remembered slaying his first dragons and absorbing their souls:



Scalez: "Wait a minute, this means you are a Dragonborn.... just like me. What a coincidence!... Hey innkeeper, the next round is on me! We need to celebrate something!"
Samuel: "Shhht, I don't want to make a big deal out of it. I'm just Samuel the Warrior, part-time mage and former master of dark arts."
Scalez: "Master of dark arts?!"
Samuel: "Long story. I will come back to it later."
Scalez: "Alright. What did you remember next?"
Samuel: "I made an acquaintance with a Daedric Prince. What was his name... Clavirus...Wil"
Scalez: "Clavicus Vile?"
Samuel: "Yes! His statue is very impressive."



The Breton mentioned that a cute dog led him to the Daedric Prince and to his surprise the dog could speak. But he didn't remember the name of the dog anymore. And he forgot what reward the Daedric Prince gave him for fulfilling his wish.
Samuel: "It's too long ago."
Scalez: "That doesn't matter, my friend. Writers have artistic freedom to some extent. I will think of something to fill the gaps."

After another couple of glasses of wine, Samuel talked about his wedding with Ysolda in Whiterun.

Samuel: "It was the greatest fault of my life to marry her. Luckily, our marriage didn't last long. I decided to stay alone for the rest of my life rightly after we've separated."
Scalez: "You haven't met the right woman yet. I believe there are indeed some out there who will change your mind someday."
Samuel: "I don't want to rack my brain about it for the time being. But I met a very interesting Dunmer at Azura's shrine."


... "Unfortunately, she was not interested in me."

"Sorry, guys. I have to interrupt your conversation.", said the innkeeper "I want to go to bed and you are the only guests who haven't left the tavern yet. You can come back tomorrow if you wish."

[ END OF PART 1 ]



Now I need to go to the supermarket and buy some things for the Christmas brunch which is in my company tomorrow. See you later.
Edit:
I ended up writing a personal message instead... Now I will definitely go to the supermarket. When I'm back I will write a discussion thread for the Story Collector to separate the stories from the comments. So the immersion will not be broken :sn-37:.
Edit 2: the discussion thread can be found here.

The Story Collector - Samuel's Story - Part 2

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 8:26 pm
by Selene310187
The next day...

It was early evening. Scalez finished his errands and was on his way to the fishing spot to met Samuel.
~ What a busy day that was and a successful one ~ he thought while touching the little bag on his side. The boxes in the two taverns he visited last contained five stories at least.

He reached the fishing spot at the lake which was located at the end of a thick forest. Samuel was already waiting for him.

Samuel: "There you are at last."
Scalez: "Sorry it took me so long to get here. I had to help some hunters who were attacked by bandits on my way."
Samuel: "Were you successful?"
Scalez: "All the bandits bit the dust. Sadly they managed to kill one of the hunters."
Samuel: "Without your help all of them would probably be dead now... Ok, let's change the topic and do the things we both had planned..."

Scalez: "Why are you taking your armor off?!"
Samuel: "We wanted to go fishing and I can swim better without the heavy armor."
Scalez: "You want to catch the fish with your bare hands."
Samuel: "Like I always do."
Scalez: "We have these."

Scalez summoned two rods.
Samuel: "How can two sticks help us?"
Scalez: "They are called rods."
Samuel: "Uh huh..."
Scalez: "You can catch fish with them since the Anniversary Edition update...You want to try?"
Samuel: "What did you say?"
Scalez: "You want to try?"
Samuel: "I mean the part you've said before... about ... what did you call it... an 'update'."
Scalez: "I didn't say anything like that."

Samuel decided against arguing with the Argonian and took one of the "rods" instead.

Scalez showed him how to use them and it was quite easy. Samuel caught a fish with the rod on his first try.

After one hour, their buckets were full with fish.
Scalez: "I suggest we build up our camp right here."
Samuel: "That's a good idea."

Samuel and Scalez were too preoccupied so that they didn't notice that they were watched by two shadowy figures hiding themselves at the edge of the forest. The woman on the left seemed to be a Dunmer wearing long red hair. The man on the right looked like a High Elf with windswept blond hair. He had an extravagant staff on his back.
"We should take care of the Argonian, Sethiel. He knows things which he shouldn't know in the first place." said the woman.
"No, Sibyll. We can't do that right now. We still need him." replied Sethiel.
Sibyll issued a silent consent. Then looked at the Breton who laughed hard about a joke the Argonian just made. "When the Argonian is no longer use to us, we should do 'it' when the Breton is not around him because he has a strong dark aura. He tries to conceal it. The Argonian doesn't seem to notice it. But I can still feel the dark aura."

Sethiel concentrated on the Breton and let everything else fade out. First, he couldn't detect anything abnormal. Then he dug deeper. Behind several layers of "masks" he found the Breton's dark core.

The Breton stopped laughing and gazed in Sethiel's direction.

Sethiel was paralyzed. He broke out in sweat.

Sibyll suspected that the Breton would prove his power by putting a curse on Sethiel. It took her a few seconds to remove the curse from him.
"Thank you, sister..."
"You were too careless.... Do you think what I think?"
"Spit it out." answered Sethiel in an angry tone.
"We need to get him on our side."
"He will not join us if we kill his little friend... Let me guess, you already have something in mind."
"You know me too well, little brother." said Sibyll with a mischievous smile on her face.

Sibyll and Sethiel dissolved into thin air leaving no traces behind.

"Hey, Samuel! I'm talking with you!"
Samuel turned around. His face didn't show any emotion and his eyes ~... are completely white, no they are glowing white. ~ "You're creeping me out...".

Samuel came back to his senses and his eyes were normal again. He realized what he did only now.
"I wasn't truthful with you. I'm still a master of dark arts."




Scalez was speechless.
"And you are in great danger, Scalez. I'm so sorry."

[ END OF PART 2 ]

The Story Collector - Samuel's Story - Part 3

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 11:15 pm
by Selene310187
Scalez regained his voice. "Are the other things you told me also lies?!"

Samuel knew that Scalez would react like that. It was his right to question everything after what just happened. "I only lied about the master of dark arts part. I swear that all other occurrences were true."

Scalez was not entirely content with Samuel's reply. "But why did you lie?"
"Because I feared that you won't accept me if you see my true self... I never wanted to do this but I have no other choice..."

Samuel formed a ball of black energy in his right hand. Scalez stepped back and made his strongest fire spell ready for use.

But Samuel slowly moved his right hand to his chest instead and touched it. The energy ball dissolved into a pitch black and thick fog encasing his body entirely.

After a short moment, the fog was gone. His bare chest had changed. Samuel pointed at the place where his heart should be. "This is my dark core - a Heart Stone, to be precise. A long time ago, I replaced my original heart with this dark artifact to gain more power. I will tell you more about it but we haven't the time for the that right now. We need to leave the fishing spot as soon as we can because we are not safe here anymore. So I suggest gathering our belongings first."

Scalez wasn't sure what he should reply. But he realized the seriousness of the situation and took action just as Samuel suggested.

Within half an hour, they stored everything in their magical backpacks. These backpacks were bigger on the inside and reduced the weight of all stored things immensely.

Samuel put his Ebony Armor on afterwards - he simply forgot that he was running around just in his linen pants all the time since he took the armor off to go swimming which he forgot as well. He remembered it as it was getting too cold for him and the nights in Skyrim can get very cold. ~ Why Scalez didn't mention that I'm running around half-naked all the time? And why I ended up in this rough and cold land anyway... I wish I could remember it... ~

While Samuel contemplated, Scalez sat on a tree stump observing his mysterious friend. He still regarded him as his friend despite Samuel's lie. ~ If I were in his shoes, I would have done the same thing, to get more power. ~
Scalez was surprised about this thought and shook his head to suppress it. It didn't help. Instead, it made it worse. A long forgotten memory rose up from his subconscious hitting him hard. He felt a sudden pain in his heart.

The pictures before his inner eye showed him that he was lying motionless on an altar. His closed eyes and his smiling mouth gave his face a peaceful look. He seemed to be delighted about the thing that would happen next. A pair of Hagravens stood in front of him. One of them took a knife and stabbed his heart. The pain was the strongest he ever experienced in his entire life. He opened his eyes and a long blood-curdling scream came from his mouth. His vision began to fade to black. The Hagravens prepared their spells. That's what he last saw before he died.

Scalez gasped.

Samuel looked worried in his direction. Then he was sunken in his thoughts again. Didn't he say that they should leave the fishing spot as soon as they can? But they couldn’t. They were caught by their inner demons.

Scalez’ visions were not over yet. He saw himself standing on a small island east of Winterhold, the snow covered mountains behind him and a shipwreck and a dead bandit next to him. ~ The Sea of Ghosts? ~ The other Scalez wore the skirt that usually was worn by Forsworns, a pelted cape and a horned helmet. His chest was bare. He didn't mind the sheer cold. ~ Something is even more off ~ Scalez looked closer at his other self and was shocked. There was a hole as big as a fist in the chest of the other Scalez exactly at the location were people have their heart. This hole was actually not empty. It was filled with a Briarheart. Little sticks span over the wound like a very primitive suture keeping the Briarheart in place.



The other Scalez turned his head. Their eyes met. "You are not supposed to be here."
Scalez was perplexed. ~ I'm dreaming. ~
"No, you don't."
"You are reading my thoughts?!"
"Not quite. There's a strong bond between us. The Briarheart allows me utilize it. Without this bond this would not be possible."
"But how..."
"We are the same person after all, more precisely two versions of a person living on different planes of existence. Unfortunately, I cannot explain how you got here."
"I had a vision of you. After I saw your Briarheart I'm now certain that the vision showed me the beginning of the Briarheart ritual. You were lying on an altar and one of the Hagravens stabbed your heart. I can still feel a reverberation of the pain you've felt."
Scalez noticed that the mouth of the other Scalez formed words but he couldn't hear them anymore. The world around him dissolved into white.

The next moment he found himself sitting on the tree stump at the fishing spot again, his head was sunken on his chest. Samuel was shaking him. "... Wake up... We wasted too much time."

Scalez opened his eyes and looked at the pale face of the Breton. ~ I wonder if he experienced a nightmare as well. ~ "How long did I sleep?"
"I have lost track of time. The night is still pitch black. I guess we slept a few hours. I don't remember that I had dozen off."
"Me neither."
"Let's stop pondering and finally leave this place."

When Samuel summoned a portal Scalez stood up.

"This will take us to my sanctuary where we can hide us until we come up with a plan."

Scalez entered the portal without hesitation and Samuel followed him.

Shortly after the portal vanished, another shadowy figure appeared out of nowhere at the fishing spot. She looked like a Wood Elf and wore a blue robe. "It has begun." where the only words she said while looking at the night sky.


At Samuel's sanctuary...

Samuel: "This is my dimensional home. It's located on another plane of existence. Nobody should be able to enter it from the outside without knowing the portal spell."



Scalez: "It looks neat. You have all the crafting stations you need. And the huge number of chests... Do you remember where you stored what?"



Samuel: "No."

And they both laughed hard.

Samuel: "It's about time that I get dressed properly."
He snapped his fingers and, within the blink of an eye, his Ebony Armor was replaced with black garments which were decorated with golden ornaments and exposed his bare chest.



"You need to teach me this trick." said Scalez.

Samuel got closer and put his hand on Scalez’ temple. "No problem." He looked deep into Scalez’ eyes. Samuel's eyes were full of warmth. ~ What an attractive man ...~ Scalez thought. He felt a sudden tingling where Samuel was touching his skin.
"That's it, quick and easy." Samuel took his hand away. The tingling was gone. "You should be able to do this now. Just imagine your desired clothes or armor and snap with your fingers."

Scalez did as he was told and changed his blue traveling mage outfit with the armor of the Dark Brotherhood. "That's not what I wanted."
"It can happen sometimes that the spell prefers the suggestions made by your subconscious. You can say the spell is a work in progress."
"And I'm your test subject."
"You got that right."
"Tsk, tsk." replied Scalez with a playful undertone. He snapped with his fingers and wore his previous outfit again.

“I think I will stick to this look.”


As they seated themselves ... at another fireplace, Scalez pointed at Samuel's Heart Stone and said: "Now tell me how you acquired... this thing."



"Where should I begin..."


[END OF PART 3]