Spin-Off (1/12/19)

You know that, at the end of the day, Clavicus isn’t going to help you. But he did make you a deal that you could leave with Katherin once he got the sword. You know that he is the Daedric Prince of bargains or something so you’re pretty sure he’s got to keep his word.



You still don’t really know why he can’t go and get the sword himself or even why he needs a sword in the first place. You assume it’s not just some standard steel or iron sword.


That’s not a bad idea.



You stop walking and sit down. You aren’t going to budge form this spot until Clavicus gives you some answers.



To your surprise, it only takes a few minutes before you hear someone approaching from behind. You turn around and see Clavicus.



“What are you doing?” He says.



“Waiting here until you tell me exactly what’s going on. Why you need me to get this sword, what it even is, and I need proof that Katherin can leave with me. In a form other than being inside of a soul gem.”



“Gah. Fine. It’s simply a sword that has the power to trap souls. I need you to get it for me because it’s hidden itself from me. And Katherin. Well, I have reason to believe she’s with the sword. I assure you that she isn’t still inside of a soul gem either. Satisfied?”



“What? How is… I thought you had her?”



“I did but now she’s with the sword. So you get the sword, you get Katherin. And before you ask, no. There’s not any way for me to prove it.”



“... So I find the sword I find Katherin?”



“Correct. Now I’d suggest you stop trying my patience and get to it.”



You are now Katherin. You’ve had a hell of a past few days. The most notable events include being killed, imprisoned by a daedroth only for a scamp named Creeper to save you along with the dark humanoid being Umbra, and you fled to some city full of weird blobby mouth things.



At least you found this empty house. Well, you’re pretty sure that Umbra killed the previous inhabitants. He’s not here right now. He’ll probably be back soon as he’s been out for a few hours already. You think anyway. Time is difficult to tell here.

You admit that your memory is rather hazy. Specifically from right before you died. You don’t remember exactly who killed you or how. You know it was something to do with the back of your neck. Maybe you were stabbed? Beheaded? You’re not sure. You do remember Ke’tiem and Liz just fine though.




The best way you could describe Umbra is an upright shadow. As for what Barbas said, you know he’s told you a fair amount about what Clavicus wants with you. You know that he wants to trap you in the sword that Umbra used to be in. You’re not sure who or what Umbra is. He could be anything from a human’s soul to raw magic. Maybe dark magic if that’s a thing.



You know that, whatever he used to be, he isn’t human currently. Despite sharing a humanoid shape, nothing else about him is human. You feel uneasy around him and you wish you didn’t have to be around him, but he’s also the only semblance of protection you have. You can’t fight off much with just your claws.




You grab the curtain and are about to lift it but you hesitate. You’re not sure if the other inhabitants here are hostile or not and you have no way to defend yourself if they are. At least until Umbra comes back. So being spotted by anyone is a risk that you shouldn’t take at the moment. You let go of the curtain. It’s likely just the side of another house anyways.


Creeper seemed to be a scamp based off of the illustrations you’ve seen of them. He could actually talk and seemed to possess at least the same intelligence as a man or mer. You’re pretty sure that’s unusual. He helped you out for some reason. Without him you wouldn’t have gotten away. You don’t know where he is right now. He disappeared as soon as you got some distance from Clavicus and the sky turned purple. You’re not even going to pretend you know what that means. He did say that if you got separated he’d try to find you again.




You’ve been deprived of a lot more than ‘most’ of your stuff. As it turns out, clothes and weapons do not follow someone when they get sucked into a soul gem. So you’re more than a little vulnerable right now to say the least. You had hoped you would find at least some clothing somewhere in this house but a quick check of the first floor has yielded no results.



You could always check the second floor. There might be a bedroom and those usually have dressers. At least in Tamriel they do. Having nothing else to do, you decide you’ll check it out. You climb out from your barrel.



As soon as you’re out something slams into the door next to you, startling you. Whatever it was it was big. After another second it hits the door again. The hinges on the door start to bend and the wood cracks. You know it won't hold for too many more hits.



You start to panic and look around the room. Your only real options are to run up the stairs and hope there’s something up there or hide inside the barrel you just climbed out of.

You decide on going upstairs based on the fact that this barrel is the only thing down here and would likely be the first thing anyone would check.



You bolt up the stairs.



You reach the top of the stairs and peer into the room as whatever is outside hits the door again. You quickly scan its contents.



The chest in the middle immediately draws your attention.That likely has something significant in it. As you approach it you notice the lock it has. Figures. You suppose that there’s a chance there’s a key somewhere up here. Maybe in those boxes over there.



The sound of the door cracking reminds you that you aren’t in a position to go looking for a key. You need a hiding place. Maybe the dresser? You run over to it and swing its doors open. To your surprise there’s a robe hanging inside. You take it out and slip it on.



It’s a little big but still a lucky find. The dresser is a little too shallow for you hide inside of it though. That just leaves the boxes to the right. As you jog over to them, you feel something heavy in one of the robe’s pockets. You reach your hand in and pull out a golden key.



You hear the door downstairs finally give out and whatever broke through hit the far wall. Your heart drops and, having no other option, you rush to open the chest.



You stick the key in and turn. The lock opens, you open it, and take out its contents.



A stick!?



No wait! It’s a staff!

You move behind the larger crate for cover and ready the staff. As soon as anything comes up those stairs you’re going to fire whatever spell this staff has charged at it. You just hope it’s an offensive one. The last thing you want is to heal whatever just broke down that door.



You can hear whatever is downstairs stomping around the first floor. It doesn’t sound like it’s headed for the stairs just yet.




Yeah, you’re positive that you weren’t transparent before. You think it’s got something to do with the fact that you were removed from your physical body and are likely now just a manifestation of your soul. You’re not invisible though. At least you weren’t to Umbra or to Creeper. They could both see you just fine.



So far it hasn’t caused you any issues and you haven’t been getting more transparent so you’ll worry about it more at a later date.


The only spell you know how to cast is a lightning bolt. And it’s not a super powerful one either. You’re completely reliant on this staff right now. And if that fails then you suppose you could jump out of the window behind you and hope you don’t break your legs… if you can still do that.



Your attention is snapped back to the thing downstairs as it approaches the stairs. Your grip on the staff tightens. You stagger your stance and point it towards the top of the stairs. You take a deep breath is it starts to ascend. You’re ready for this. You hear the stairs creak as they try to support its weight. It scrapes against the walls as it continues.



A giant hand slams onto the floor in front of you, splitting the wood in some places. Another grabs the wall. It pulls itself up the last set of steps.



You aren’t ready for this.

Beginning to panic, you quickly aim your staff and fire it off as the monster advances towards you with terrifying speed. To your relief, it shoots a fireball. The recoil sends you crashing against the wall. It manages to block the fireball with one of its arms and prevent a direct hit but the fire still explodes violently with a bright flash, lots of smoke, and a thunderous crack.


You quickly get up, stumbling only for a second and with an intense ringing in your ears. Before any of the smoke has a chance to clear, you’re climbing out of the window. Before you drop down you take a glance into the room to see it still reeling from the fireball.



You land on the grass less than elegantly. One of your ankles roll under the force of the drop and you fall to your knees for a moment. You curse under your breath and get up to run away from the house, pure adrenaline numbing you from any pain. You only take five steps before the monster crashes through the same window you jumped out of, taking a good portion of the wall with it.



Gritting your teeth, you turn around and fire another fireball as soon as it lands. You’re ready for the recoil this time and only stumble backwards but maintain your balance. It dodges to the side of the fireball in a surprising display of dexterity. It then catapults itself towards you by pushing off of the ground and the side of the house with its arms.



It crashes into you with the force of a tonne of bricks. You cry out in pain and terror as it pins you to the ground with its hand. It lifts you up and throws you at one of the many buildings. Your breath is knocked out of you as you slam into it. You fall to the floor, gasping for breath.



You look up through blurry eyes and see it approaching in no hurry. Clearly it doesn’t expect you to be walking away from that very fast. You grunt as, to your surprise, you manage to stand up with relative ease. You hurt all over, but given what just happened you should be in a lot more pain. Are you resistant to physical attacks?



You dropped the staff when you were thrown. It’s behind him at the moment so you need to get around him to get it back.



Not having many options, you decide to charge right at the hulking creature. It speeds up as well. The ankle you rolled cries out in protest, but it doesn’t stop you. As you close the distance you get down on all fours while still running and jump.



You get enough height to completely jump over him. You land a few feet behind it and immediately start running again as it struggles to stop and turn around. You quickly approach the staff lying in the grass.



You pick it up and whip around to size up this beast out in the open. You don’t know how many more charges the staff has left so you’ll need to make these next ones count. There is an injury on the arm you hit before, but it doesn't look very severe. A possible weak point could be inside its mouth or its eyes. You'll just need an opening.

You haven’t seen it use its mouth for attacking yet, so you’re not sure what would prompt it to. For now you’ll wait and see what it does, react accordingly, and wait. Maybe it will--



“Katherin! There you are!” Says a familiar voice.



Was that…? You briefly look around for the source of the voice to little avail.



“Don’t worry about where I am right now. Focus on killing that Big Ugly. Have you tried using your lightning yet? I suggest you do!” he says.



Your lightning? The only thing you’ve killed with that is a painting of a melon. Then again it is something you haven’t tried yet. This thing could conveniently be weak to lightning magic. You switch which hand is holding the staff and steady your stance.



You dramatically thrust your hand forward and release the spell. A single, but large, bolt of lightning shoots out and flies past your target and off into the distance.



“Bullseye!” The voice shouts. Oh shut up, you think to yourself.



The monster, clearly aggravated by your spell, charges forward.



An idea pops into your head. You ready another bolt and hold it in your hand as he approaches. It starts to loudly crackle and your fur stands on end.



Once the monster is close, you ball your hand up into a fist, give your best warcry, and aim a punch directly at its eye.



When your fist connects you hear what sounds like glass shattering, then static explodes everywhere. You stumble backwards as it connects. Your hand hurts like hell and you’ve burnt part of your sleeve off but you’ve sent the monster flying directly into a tree, knocking it over. What you assume to be its blood starts to pool beneath it. It doesn’t get up.



You let out a sigh and slump into a sitting position to look down at your hand. Physically there’s no evidence of damage but you think you’re more transparent than before.



“Bravo! You might get home yet.” The voice says. “Oh, by the way! I’m up on the roof behind you!”



You look behind you and see a scamp up on the roof of a building. Like you suspected, it’s Creeper. He jumps down and lands smoothly onto the grass.



“How did you know?” You ask.



“Know what? That your own magic would be effective?”



“Yeah. It wasn't that… potent before. And it’s not like I’ve been practicing it or anything.”



“It’s simple really. You no longer have a… truly physical form.” He says. “You’re a soul, a spirit. As a result you can skip the resistance that corporeal beings have and so the many inefficiencies of casting a spell have been nullified.”



“... I really am dead then.”



“In many senses, yes. However, you still have your use to Clavicus. Assuming he can retrieve Umbra. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you?”



“He left earlier. I don’t know where he went. He didn’t say if he’d be back now that I think about it.”



“Clavicus will focus on getting Umbra back first so for now you’re relatively safe from him... Come walk with me. We have some discussing to do.”



You are now M’Iago. After two days of travel you’ve finally made it back to the cave that your coven of vampires calls home. Clavicus should have fulfilled his end of the deal by now; remove their vampirism and let them know who’s responsible for it, You. You’ll be regarded as a hero. It's time to reap the rewards of your hard work.



As you approach the entrance you find it odd that they have no sentry out front. Perhaps it’s less necessary now? You shrug it off and enter the cave. The smell of blood is heavy in the air. It shouldn’t be. You ready your bow and nook an arrow while peering through the darkness and taking short steps.



Your heart catches in your throat once you get into the cave proper and see a silhouetted figure leaning against the wall in a pool of blood.

Both books are about the same size so concealing one inside of the other would be difficult. You suppose you could just snoop while she’s not here…



You bite your lip and flip to the most recent date; today’s. She must have written this while you were passing out on the bed when you first got this room.



“Dear Diary,

Today started off as any other. I went into town to get some more pudding and to get lunch (you know how I love pastries they make down at the bakery). However, something exciting happened whilst I was studying in the Inn. I overheard a khajiit talking to himself about daedric princes! I approached him immediately, of course, and questioned him more. We got a little off topic and I ended up ranting about liminal bridges (oops!). But then! A super cute argonian with an equally cute name, Liz, showed up!”



Awww, she thinks you’re cute.



“She’s super into learning magic too! Almost as much as I’m into learning about all the different planes of existence. It’s inspiring to find someone so passionate! I think we could make a really good team too! I’d love to get to know her a lot more. Hopefully we get to work together... Maybe without Ke’tiem there too~~ :x That’d be nice.”



Wait, what? You read the last bit over again. That’s not sounding platonic… is she-- Before you can finish your thought you hear the doorknob begin to turn. You slam the diary closed and turn around just as the door opens.


“Baaaack! And I got you some new clothes.” She holds up a tunic. “I think it’ll look good on you.” She looks at it, and then back at you.



“It’s a pretty color.” You say. “I’ll probably need help putting it on.”



“You got it!” She walks over and helps you slip it on.



“Thanks, but it’s a little… short. Don’t you think? And it’s only got one shoulder.” You say. You internalize the fact that it’s not really ‘you’ and even a tad bit skimpy. You’d prefer something more mage-like or something with flowey bits-- and sleeves! You don’t want to risk insulting her, she did just buy you an outfit.



“Pffff. You’re just used to robes that go past the soles of your feet. And It’s part of the fashion! Totally coincidence, I promise.” She says, waving it off. “Anyway, while I was out I came up with a game plan. Assuming you don’t need more rest, tomorrow we should head to Cyrodiil because that’s where the closest shrine dedicated to Clavicus Vile is and the only real way we have a slight chance of getting in contact with him is there. On our way I’m sure we could find some more literature about sigil stones and get a better idea on the best way to get one. But we may want to see if Clavicus Vile would even have an interest in conversing with us.”



“I should be fine.” You say. You’ve definitely been feeling better over the last few hours. It helps that you weren’t bleeding for that long of a time and Talia had a few healing potions. You should be good to go tomorrow. You also don’t want to take too long in getting this bridge open. Katherin, and now Ke’tiem, need your help. You’re partially responsible for Ke’tiem so getting him back will be a big weight off of your mind.



“Excellent!” She says. “Since it’s getting late I also got some preparations for dinner-- oh and your sweetroll!” She pulls some sandwich fixings out of her bag and puts them on the table. She hands you the sweetroll directly.



You immediately start eating the roll and thinking about the contents of her diary as she gets to work on making some sandwiches.

“So did you get a room?” You ask her.



“Hmm?” She turns to look at you. “I only got one room. It’s a lot cheaper this way. We’re going to be using a lot of gold on actually opening this liminal bridge so we should conserve it where we can. You don’t mind, do you?”



“Oh! No, no. I just assumed that you got two. Just one is fine though.”



“Good!” Talia goes back to focusing on making sandwiches. You take a bite of your sweetroll. You still don’t know what to think about what she wrote.


Feasible? No. Possible? Maybe. Do you want to do that? Absolutely not.


You can always practice casting the spells you know but other than that you’re not sure. You haven’t had a chance to look around town so you don’t know if they have any guilds here or even just a magic shop. You ask Talia if there’s anything magic related nearby.



She says that there is a small magic shop a few minutes from here but she thinks that you shouldn’t try to do magic before resting up first. She doesn’t want you to hurt yourself more. Also your sandwich is done. She hands it to you. You decide that after you eat you’ll try to get some sleep. You’re going to have a long day tomorrow and you can always practice your magic while you walk.



You are now Katherin.



“So, let me see if I’ve got this all right.” You say. Creeper has just filled you in on a lot of details surrounding your position. “Clavicus wanted my soul to replace Umbra’s inside of the sword so he could... ‘reabsorb’ him because Umbra was originally part of Clavicus that gained sentience. You’re actually Barbas, just in the form of a scamp to prevent Clavicus from catching on that you’re directly helping me escape this plane of Oblivion. And if I do actually get back to Tamriel, my soul will no longer be trapped here. As in… I die for real. Is that all right?”



Creeper nods. “That’s the short version.”



You look down in thought. This isn’t exactly a winnable situation.



“Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention. Ke’tiem is here.” Creeper says.



“He’s what? Here?” You start looking around.



“I didn’t mean right here. He’s just in this plane of Oblivion. Although he’s got to be close by now. Clavicus pointed him in your direction because he wants his help finding Umbra some time ago. When he gets here I’ll leave you two alone for a little while. So you can say anything you want to before you… move on.”



“Y… yeah. Thank you.” You stop walking and turn back to look at all the buildings. Creeper stops as well. You’ve got very limited time left. You hope you get to spend most of that time with Ke’tiem… oh! You think you see him on the far end of the island.



You look over at Creeper and point in Ke’tiem’s direction.



“Looks like I was right about him being close by.” He says. “I’ll wait over here.”



Without another word you start walking in his direction, then you’re jogging, then you’re running, and finally you’re in an all out sprint.



You shout out his name. His ears perk up in your direction and he turns to face you directly. You start waving at him as you continue at a breakneck pace.



“Katheri-- Woah!” Is all you can hear him say before you trip over your baggy robes and are met with a mouthful of dirt. You lift yourself off of the ground briefly and spit most of it out before you roll over onto your back and look up at the sky, accepting and becoming one with the situation. You hear Ke’tiem’s frantic footsteps as he runs over to you.



“Are you okay!?” He asks as he reaches you and kneels down next to you. You can see his concerned face in the corner of your eye. You open your mouth to explain that you’re fine but you start laughing instead. It doesn’t take long for Ke’tiem to join you.



You sit up and pull him into a hug, still laughing. After another minute or so you manage to compose yourself. You withdraw from the hug enough to look into his eyes.



“You have no idea how good it is to see you.” You say.



He smiles. “I think I do.” He says. “Hey, wait. Stand up.” He helps you to your feet and then looks you up and down. “You’re… not opaque.”



“Yeah, I know.” You say, looking down at your hand. “It’s because all that’s left of me is my soul. And…” You stop yourself. You don’t think this is the right time to bring up the fact that if you do manage to escape you’ll fade away. “Well, really the only real difference I’ve noticed is I’m a lot more resistant to physical attacks.”



“Huh.” He says. “Well, I don’t mind. It doesn’t make you any less attractive.” He gives you a cheesy wink. Jeez.



“Thaaaanks. I was worried about that.” You give him a light punch on the shoulder. “So what do you say we head inside one of those buildings and sit down to catch up a bit?”



“Sounds good to me.” He says and then you both head inside the nearest building. Like the one you were in before, it’s barely furnished. You sit down on the bed and pat the spot next to you, inviting Ke’tiem to join you.



He tells you about how me met a Breton named Talia and how Liz and her were working on a plan to open a bridge from Tamriel to this plane of Oblivion. You fill him in on everything that Creeper has told you, still opting to leave out the part where you’re going to fade out of existence. He listens intently, nodding occasionally.



“Do you know what Creeper’s plan to get you out of here is?” He says once you finish.



“He hasn’t filled me in on any details. Just that he does have a few ideas on what could work.” You say. “Can we take a moment to just… relax and not deal with any of this for a little?” You ask him.



“Yeah! Sure. Anything you have in mind you wanted to do?”



“... Yeah. I’ve got an idea.” You shift your position on the bed so you’re facing him more directly.



“Whatcha got?.” He says.



You put a hand on his shoulder and pull him into a kiss. It feels odd that this is only the second time you’ve done so. You really did miss his company. You pull away to take a deep breath.



“Are you okay?” He asks you, concern in his voice and expression.



You nod. “About to be more than just okay.” You say as you push him into a lying position on the bed and crawl overtop him.



“Heyyy what’s uhhhh-- o-oh.” He says. His face turning more red than your fur.



You are now this blood-covered Khajiit.