Once his door was safely closed, Caius turned to Alanya, sizing her up all over again. "So, had enough of bandit slaying and moving for a bit?" he asked with what looked to be a friendly smile.
Alanya blinked, her surprise at Caius's knowledge of her recent activities showing. Caius chuckled. "I am the Spymaster, you know; what, you thought I just let you go off into the world without keeping tabs on you?"
Alanya's cheeks reddened, and she glowered slightly. "No, of course not," she said, a bit stiffly. " ... So, sir, I am ready for my first assignment ..."
"Oh good; I was worried you forgot what you came to Morrowind for," Caius quipped. Seeing Alanya's face wince with guilt, he added quickly "Relax Novice, I'm just teasing. Truth be told, I'm glad you took the time to sharpen your skills before trying spywork; there's always work that needs to be done for the Blades, and more of us to do it than people realize, so feel free to take your time about your job - unless I tell you otherwise."
" ... Yes sir," Alanya answered, feeling somewhat relieved.
"Another thing; don't call me sir," Caius retorted. "I try hard enough as it is to ignore my grey hair - what little of it is left; I don't need youngsters reminding me of my age."
Alanya actually blushed. "Sorry ..."
Caius regarded Alanya for a moment, minorly concerned. From the reports he had been sent, Alanya was not given to acting so subdued and formal; he wondered if her behavior was due to guilt for taking almost a month to get around to asking for her first job or something else. Nonetheless, he cleared his throat ...
"Right; now then, your first assignment. As it happens, I need some information regarding two local cults, that of the Nerevarine and the Sixth House. You are to contact a local authority on these matters, one Hasphat Antabolis, Fighter Guild drillmaster. Introduce yourself as one of my friends and ask Hasphat for information; he will most likely request a favor of you in exchange. Perform whatever favor he requests, get the information from him, and report back to me."
Alanya asked " ... Do you know what sort of favor he'd be likely to ask?"
Caius thought to himself Good; she's at least thinking ahead as he replied "Well, Hasphat fancies himself a bit of an antiquarian and scholar; whatever he asks of you, it'll probably be to fetch some collectable bauble, or mabye some rare books. You might be able to grant his favor by delving into a shop, rather than a cave."
"That would be a first ..." Alanya muttered.
"It would almost definitely be easier than single-handedly wiping out a houseful of Camonna Tong," Caius grinned.
Alanya blinked again. " ... Maybe," she said, telling herself to stop being surprised at Caius's knowledge of her doings; it was, after all, his job to know things ...
------
"Ah, so you're one of Caius's friends," Hasphat smiled, cracking his knuckles. "Nice to meet you miss Alanya - say, there's a rumor going around that you had something to do with the big bloodbath down in the Council Club; what went on there ...?"
"Nothing; nothing whatsoever at all," Alanya said, having gotten tired of hearing everyone in Balmora whispering about her recent escapades and her purported involvement in them. "Last I heard it was a Thieves Guild operation."
Hasphat snorted. "Right, of course ... anyway, on to business. What can I do for Caius this week?"
"There's two local cults ..." Alanya started to say.
"Ah; let me guess, Sixth House and Nerevarine?" Hasphat interrupted.
" ... Yes actually," Alanya confirmed; she wasn't keen on being interrupted like that.
"Thought so; there's been a fair bit of coorespondance going around in our circles about those topics. Probably set of Caius's warning bells to hear so many people buzzing about it. Well, let's see ... in enchange for my notes on those, I require a Dwemer Puzzle Box."
"Ah ..." Alanya said. "Where does one find those ..."
"Why in Dwemer ruins of course," Hasphat grinned. "There's one not too far out of town - Arkngthand, to be exact. I'll write you up some directions, you go there and get a puzzle box for me, then we'll do business. Oh - mind the bandits that I hear have been setting up shop there, and be careful not to go too deep into the ruins - there's old Dwemer security machines and rumor has it Dwarven Specters down there as well."
Alanya looked at Hasphat askance, but a glimmer came to her eye; at least this treasure hunt promised some hunting as well ...
------
The sun shone placidly as Alanya made her way to the Dwarven ruins of Arkngthand, which helped highlight the two or three Cliff Racers that were buzzing around along the way. Still, the gods gave man and mer bows for just these sorts of pests ^_^, so Alanya had little trouble on her way to the ruins.
The first real obstacle came at the bridge Hasphat had told her to cross; she saw a man standing guard on the far side, near the ruins itself. He looked alert and dangerous, though he hadn't spotted Alanya yet so he wasn't as alert as he ought to have been.
"Hmm, Hasphat said there were bandits; do I assume this is one of them and shoot him, or get up close to make sure?" Alanya debated, hunkering down behind a rock to watch and plot. "If I shoot him and miss, or only wing him, he could run back and warn his friends before I could finish him; that would make getting the box a lot harder. ... That, and he might not be a bandit ... yeah right."
Alanya briefly reflected on her days before being imprisoned; back then she was proficient in nature magic, and could blend in with many surroundings, cause vines to grow up and entangle foes, call upon beasts of the wild to help her, and other such feats. Her prolonged stay in prison had caused her magic skills to fade - the old use it or lose it axiom proved all too true - and she hadn't yet taken the time to try and relearn most of her magic save the healing spells and the herbal lore she had always excelled in. She began to keenly feel this lack in her re-education as she looked upon the mostly-open bridge; there were some hand-drawn wagons that could offer her cover if she snakecrawled down the length of the bridge, but she didn't care to trust solely on that ...
... Then again, the Emperor's gift to her had been a legendary ring that - mostly - mimiced her old camoflage spells, and she did have a potion or two of invisibility on hand, so she wasn't totally unprepared. But still, at some point or another, it would be nice to reclaim her old skills. For now though, she slipped on the Emperor's gift and made due as best she could.
As it turned out, she got right up to the guard; her magic skills may have faded, but her natural stealth had only imporvedr since she got on Morrowind. I, the player, was most impressed with my stealthiness - the more so since, in game, I pretty much just walked up to the guy while he was staring right at me, Chameleon or no Lesson of the Day: The Stealth Skill rocks your world. (insert Ninja Emoticon here =D)
"What was that!?" the guard snarled as Alanya was just slipping past him to come from behind, the ring's spell fading at a bad time.
"Oops," Alanya cursed, popping her spear's enchantment. "Fight time ..."
"Let's see what you're made of!" the gaurd snarled, summoning a skeleton warrior. "Kill her!"
Alanya's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Okay, you just made me very, very mad ..." she sneered, visions of Pete playing in the back of her mind. However, this Skeleton had but a sword, not a bow ...
The guard summoned his own bound spear as Alanya sidestepped a sword swipe from the skeleton, ducked a second swipe, and rushed the bag of bones, lifting it over her head and tossing it over the bridge. The Skeleton had a most long-suffering expression of "Why Do These Things Always Happen To Me?" as he fell; fortunately the summoning spell expired before he hit the ground, so he was spared a lot of pain.
"Nice move," the guard grunted, stabbing at Alanya. His spear glanced off her chitin cuirass, drawing some blood as it skidded past her arm.
"Thank you," Alanya said, thrusting with wrists of iron once, twice - and no more, as her thrusts had taken him in the gut and then in the heart. "I like this move better though."
The guard gargled on blood as Alanya seductively lifted one perfet leg to place against his shoulder - to push him off her spear. The bandit mage fell lifeless to the ground.
"... Hmm, he wasn't all that tough," Alanya thought to herself as she looked at the ruins before her. "I wonder if his companions are any tougher ..."
------
Spoiler Alert!!! ---> The bandits did not, in fact, get any tougher =P
By this point, I the player was thoroughly enjoying sneaking up on bandits, sometimes in plain view, and bringing them down with well-placed thrusts. I didn't always avoid being noticed, but I didn't have any difficulty in killing these guys; considering how many previous characters of mine had fallen to foes just like these, I was taking a perverse pleasure in Alanya's superiority to her foes, sometimes muttering "And that one was for Embrace ... and this is for my first charcter ever, who died to that stupid smuggler mage in the first cave ... oh, and that one's for the Nord bandit woman I made last week!
But anyway ...
Alanya found the upper levels of the ruins to be perfect for her; the twists, turns, large mechanical dohickies sticking out of the floor, and background noise all worked to her advantage for sneaking around. Half the bandits she came acrosss never realized she was there until after she ventilated their spleens; the rest, sadly, were unable to call for help over the din of the machinery, especailly with Alanya stabbing them whenever they took a breath to yell.
So, up and down Alanya searched, finding cups, goblets, plates, coins, and cogs of valuable Dwemer metal, but no boxes. Vases and crates were stuffed with the loot the bandits had found, probably from other adventurers like her; still, no box. Doors barred with locks and traps stood in her way but fell to her picks and probes - Alanya had once considered being a thief herself and had learned a bit about traps and locks from all the bandit caves she had plundered in her life - but there were no boxes hiding behind these obstacles either.
"Ugh; considering how much this stuff weighs," Alanya grumbled as she swiped as much loot as she could, "I wonder how heavy Hesphat's stupid box is going to be ..."
Eventually passing by a large boiler room - and frowning as her bare feet crossed lightly over hot metal floors - Alanya came across a larger door with a better lock than she had come across.
" ... Well, why not look past there?" she decided. "Maybe the box is buried deeper in the ruins ..."
------
Dwemer Centurion machines and Dwarven Specters, Alanya decided during her exploration of the lower levels of Arkngthand, were moderately dangerous. Oh, one on one they posed little problem, not even the hard-hitting giant steam-bellowing ones with the huge club arm, but two or three at once, as she learned the hard way, could give her reason to worry.
Thankfully, these machiens and ghosts were almost as unperceptive as the bandits upstairs she had slain I the player was heard to comment "You know, that Steam Centurion would have killed me in three, maybe four hits back at level four to six; amazing what an extra eighty hit points will do for you ..."
... What can I say? It was invigorating to see Alanya take a vsicous backhand from a Steam Centurion, stagger a bit but NOT fall down, and say "Okay, I'm annoyed now," as she poked it into non-functionality ^_^
Eventually, though, Alanya had to retreat home, for she had found way too much loot and no puzzle box. "Sigh; I'll come back tomorrow morning ..."
------
Upon returning to the ruins, Alanya crept in again, and this time noticed a door on the upper levels she had missed the other day.
" ... You don't suppose ..." she muttered, shaking her head at herself.
Sighing, Alanya crept forward and found another bandit, one still alive and very, very jumpy given that something had killed all his friends the other day. Alanya waited, said "BOO!" at the right time, and let him jump onto her spear.
Chuckling, Alanya carefully eased open another door ...
"HA!" cried the bandit waiting inside, lunging forward with a sword and almost poking Alanya in the shoulder. "So you're the one who killed my gang, s'wit!"
"Guilty as charged," Alanya confirmed, parrying a thrust for her head. "You wouldn't happen to have a puzzle box, would you? If you do and give it to me, I could let you live ..."
"Boss Crito doesn't make deals with scum!" the bandit roared, coming at Alanya again.
"Wonder how you hired anyone then ..." Alanya grinned, dodging and thrusting, and thrusting several times more as Crito stumbled. "Oh well ..."
Wiping her spear off on Crito's shirt, Alanya looked around in the room - and there, plain as day, was a small box sitting on a shelf, one which was obviously meant to be a puzzle.
" ... Yeah; I explored every part of this ruin except the one room with what I was looking for yesterday," Alanya sighed. "I even went down into a huge passage with water and everything and wasted some levitation potions to explore some areas ... oh well, no point in complaining now ..."
------
"Why, this is perfect!" Hasphat enthused, taking the box from Alanya and looking it over. "Hmm, this reminds me of somethnig in my notes; I might be able to make a key from the solution to this ..."
"That's very interesting," Alanya said with a polite smile. "But, for right now ..."
"Ah, right; here's what you wanted," Hasphat smiled, passing on notes and know-how regarding the Sixth House. When Alanya finally left the Fighter's Guild, she was feeling pretty satisfied with her first job ...
... until the people on the street to Caius's house began looking at her with odd, glassy expressions, chanting "Why do you deny Dagoth Ur, Alanya; the Sixth House shall rise again ..." and reaching for her with the strength of the maddened ...
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