They told me, Vardanak-Vos, that I was crazy. I had long studied the teaching of Warrior-Poet Vehk, despite never even collecting half of his sermons, rare and distributed throughout the lands that they were. As a scholar, I was one of the leaders of the field. My discoveries of Dunmer religous writings astounded and awed my fellows. It was all a mixture of persistance, and a certain clarity I can achieve through meditation and the religous workers of ALMSIVI. Now, my beloved homeland is but a waste. Little greenery or life remains on Vvardenfel. And with the fall of the empire, my only way to secure transport was through blatant bribery. I'm lucky my work has built up a personal fortune, save in the Imperial banks during red year.

A settlement thrives where the city of Vivec once was, and now I search for answers. Fisherman catch their prey on the ruins of the former cantons. It is their only livelihood. As an outlander, I stand out like a sore thumb in the local populace, even though my skin is of ash as much as theirs.

I have booked residence in the upper part of an accompliced craftman's house; someone has to supply the fishermen here. The settlement has grown quite large and prosperous, and already has it's own seedy underbelly in smuggling, an echo of the old Vvardenfel. Unlike the rest of Morrowind, it is unconcerned by the Argonians. Why would they want a useless hunk of rock across a large sea?

My purpose here is simple; reclaimation of sacred artifacts of ALMSIVI, such a muatra, and Vivec's loincloth, artifacts rumoured to go hand-in-hand. As well as Vivec's shoulderplates and other armor. As well as this, there is the reclaimation of ancient writings of the god poet, and finding evidence of what happened to our god. Looters so far have failed to enter the Palace, now submerged under sea and sand. A magical field seems to protect it, and I will be hard pressed to find away. However, I visited Vivec in it's glory days, and I pilgrimaged to the sewers. I know that theee is a connection from the sewers of other cantons into Vivec's palace, if I could simply break through. I will need help from the locals, though, there must be a few mages for hire here, or alchemists, who can supply me here. And surely warriors will be needed against the thread of the dreugh and worse.

So now the question falls. What do I do next?

Go to the thiefs guild and ask around for a map of the sewers of the palace? Talk to an alchemist about the shielding and hire im some petty thugs and other criminals as your meat shield while upholding an high reward after this.

On your first directive, 1. The Thief's Guild is illegal, so I can just stroll into it, I have to ask around. Considering this is post-red year Morrowind, there's probably some local crime gangs instead.

IC:

I approached the nearest villagar. He regarded me with barely hidden suspicion. "Greetings, sirrah, can you please direct me to the nearest alchemist or hedge doctor?"

He looked at me like I'd just vomited purple and blue rainbows out of my eyes and mouth. "Wat'chu sai? Arlchemist? I hard thar's one dem down by the fisherman's part of town. Maybai trai hiddin' down der. And allsa, word of ahd-vace, don't be talkin' down to folk like y'alls doin raight naw, is a good wai ter get a fish club in yer head round these here parts."

I understood very little of what he was saying, but I nodded and didn't bother asking him to repeat himself. "So," I said, dropping my voice to a lesser upright and haughty one. "Know where I can get some skooma around here?"

He laughed. "I wouldn't nothin' bout dat. But ah'd say try old Milikgreen's Tavern. It's down by the Fisherman's houses and workplaces. Place is practicly fallin' down, can't miss it."

We parted ways. I continued on into the fisherman's district, asking for directions where I needed them. Eventually, I got to the Alchemist. It was a run-down place which replaced the stink of fish with even fouler rotten egg odours. Inside, an old man was standing over a bench, mixing dusts together that produced flashes of bright lights, and mist to flow through the room.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, good sir-alchemist, but... I'm looking for very long lasting potions of water breathing and some decent health and fatigue restorations."

He looked at me scrutinizingly for a second, and then replied, with a noticeably refined accent; he was not a native. "We have plenty of water breathing potions, and quite a few fatigue restorations, but I'm afraid we only have one health potion. The water breathing potions are 36 gold coins, the fatigue, 25 gold coins and the health potion is 50 gold coins."

I checked my pocket. I had 1000 gold, roughly.

(What do I buy?)

Buy all of the water-breathing potions.

This is a fishing village, there a probably dozens of them.

I don't care; buy all of the water breathing potions. Then you will be well prepared.

How much does a Water Breathing Potion cost? If its something like 0.5 Septims then its stupid to buy 2000 potions...

Read the fricking thing. 36 gold.

For how long does one work? (read it this time, pretty sure it didnt say anything bout time...)

"All of your water breathing potions." I replied. He seemed taken aback at such a massive order, and preceeded to go into the back of the shop. After a few minutes, he emerges with a bag, and empties it onto the table. 14 potions.

"That's be 504 gold coins." He continued. I paid up, and stored the rest of my gold back in my pouch. Hopefully I'd have enough left to pay for the hired muscle. I left the shop, and moved through the stinking fishing district, once more asking for directions, until I arrived at my destination. Milikgreen's Tavern. The man hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said that it had been practicly falling down. Amidst the stone building of the settlement, it was a falling apart old thing of wood. I could almost see the termites crawling around inside it.

When I entered the tavern, I was almost knocked back by the overpowering smell of skooma and human stench. The man hadn't been lying either. Topless dancers adorned a platform to the left of the room, the intoxicated patrons throwing coins at them, and in some cases, retreating to back rooms with them.

The place was lit with ambient red lights, and it was full of raucous patrons, at the bar, putting back flin, or huddled in circles, smoking or drinking skooma. Smoke pushed around me like a light mist as I pushed myself to the bar. An overworked barman stared back at me as I took my seat. "Was' yer poison, eh?" He inquired.

(Over to you guys.

You should pick a drink, then pick a fight wiht the biggest skooma-head in there.

Order some flin and ask around for work.

You see one of the Breton dancers off to the side taking a break, sitting with a small drink rubbing her tired feet. Save for the scar across her chin, you think she's rather comely. What interests you more, is that she is reading in that dim light, and it is what she reads that sparks your interest as well as your nerve to talk to her. She has a passing interest in Tamrielic Lore and Artifacts.

You might want to walk over and offer her a refill.

Bro, I like that you're participating, but I'm kind of the story teller here bro.

IC:

I ordered a flin from the barkeep, and looked around the room. In one of the groups, there was a particularly large and vocal skooma-head, covered in gang tattoos. The barkeep slapped the drink and a shot glass down on the counter. I dropped a few coins on the counter and he took them away. I drained the entire shot, and poured myself more. Once the bottle was finished, and I was considerably woozy, I picked it up, and walked over to the skooma-head, I broke the bottle on his head and punched him in the face. He went sprawling onto the ground with a roar. When we was down, I leapt on him. I am not a strong man. I am not a fighter. His friends reacted, and pulled me off of him. I stood no chance against them, and they beat me viciously. When I was in Summerset Isles, many years ago, I trained with several isolated communities of mages. In this time, I learned to move my mind elsewhere when in extreme pain, and block it out, with minimal magicka use.

Once the beating was over, and they felt I was subdued, they brought me into a backroom, and threw me onto the floor. I could feel blood flowing running down my face. "Milikgreen, sir, this one was brawling in the bar. Put out Daldrin for no reason." I pushed myself up a few inches and glimpsed a old, bearded dunmer, dressed smartly with a weathered and calculating look on his face. I was slammed back onto the floor with a boot in my back.

"If I can get a word in!" I gasped. "I've been looking for you, Mr. Milikgreen. I'm interested in -hngh- a business deal.". A deep, gravelly voice rumbled. "Let him up.". The skooma-users released me and pulled me up.

"What kind of deal?" The voice rumbled on.

"Well, sir, I'm on an expedition to the underside of the cantons. Artifact finding. Hush-hush, very profitable. I'm looking for... professional mercenaries." I had almost said Hired Thugs, but I thought about how it wouldn't go down well with the men holding me. "I'll pay some money up front, and split 50% of the... lesser artifacts I find amoung you and your men.

"What is your name?"

"Vardanak-Vos. If you do the necessary cross-referencing, you will find I'm a reputable scholar on the mainland. Or was, before everything went to [censored]."

He nodded. "You put emphasis on... minor artifacts. You're keeping anything.... priceless you find?"

"Yes." I said, simply.

He smiled. "You can have these three of my men. Try and return them in one piece." He motioned to the men gathered around me. They were muscled, strong mercenaries. They looked extremely tough, and their well-oiled limbs gleamed in the lamplight, reflecting the curves of their finely crafted bodies. I caught myself looking for too long, and turned back around.

"That's excellent." I said.

"Now, onto payment. 300 gold up front. We'll talk more once you return. I can supply you with a ship and a sailor, too. It'll wait for you for as long as you think you'll be."

I took the money out of my robes and handed it over. He nodded, and waved to the door. I exited with the thugs. The thugs each gave me their names, as well as directions to the docks.

INV:

200 gold.
Robes.
Dagger.
Thug 1(Arinas.)
Thug 2(Starlin.)
Thug 3(Rictig)
14 Water Breathing Potions.

Heh, the devs should have made it like in Discworld.

http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Thieves%27_Guild

they should go the the crater that was Vivec and all drink a water potion and then just swim around until they find something. If they don't they should re-surface before they die and search the land.

"I visited Vivec in it's glory days, and I pilgrimaged to the sewers. I know that theee is a connection from the sewers of other cantons into Vivec's palace, if I could simply break through. I will need help from the locals, though, there must be a few mages for hire here, or alchemists, who can supply me here. And surely warriors will be needed against the thread of the dreugh and worse. "

Go to that vivic's sewers to the weak spot you found. Make sure it will be in the dark otherwise guards mind find it suspicious.

Does 1 of the 3 mercenaries smoke?

All 3 of them are skooma addicts of varying degrees.

Also, I didn't realise I had made such atrocious typos in the first post. I'll try and spellcheck the posts in future. I have a severe migraine atm(almost passed out yesterday morning.), and I don't feel up to writing, atm, but I'll do my best.

IC:

We arrived at the docks as evening began and the skies darkened. Givtan, the sailor, greeted us and asked us when we wanted to head out. I wanted to head out immediately. Arinas, who was obviously the most prominent of the thugs, spoke up. "If we go in the broad daylight, guards or pirates might see the ship. Big problems with, uh, smuggling here. They'd probably arrest us. We better go during the night time."

I nodded. I trusted the judgement of a local better than that of my own. The boat we were taking was an enlarged version of the usual canol ships that carried people through the cantons in days gone by. At night fall, we all hoped into the ship and took it out into the water. The boat sailed to the foreign quarter of Vivec. The place furthest from the blast.

"Well," I said. "Here we are. Wait here while I go prepare some potions. Each of these will last about 5 minutes. Between us, we have enough to give two people twenty minutes, and 2 people 15 minutes. Who'll take the 15 minute ones?"

Starlin and Rictig volunteered. Arinas took a skooma pipe out of his pocket, as well as a bottle of skooma. He lit the skooma pipe and took a few puffs. "What are you doing?" I demanded. "You can't swim intoxicated."

He glared at me. "If I'm going to die down here, I want a last smoke. I'll still be able to swim and fight. I'll be faster, anyway." I gave up. "Fine, start drinking your potions. We all drank back the breathing potions assigned to us.

Givtan appeared unnerved. "I hear something." He muttered. "Oars... against.... PIRATES!" his voice turned into a yell. Lights lit up a short distance away, as a recently darkened ship prepared to attack. They must have seen the light from Arinas's skooma pipe. Givtan roared "Everyone down." I saw the silhouettes of men aiming at us with crossbows as I ducked. Bolts struck the boat. I vomited when I turned to see Givtan's bleeding face, a bolt stuck in his skull.

OOC:

What does our brave hero do next?

grab Givtan's potons, and jump into the water while drinking them.

Jump overboard, you are not prepared to fight against "well armed?" men. Either swim to your sewer spot, or more interesting, climb on board of the other ship at the other side and look a way to blow up the ship /burn it down. (Would they really expect that their ship gets entered as they enter the other one?). And then swim with whoever was cowardly enough to dive also in the water instead of fighting towards the sewers ^^.