Rielle studied the villa's plans, now glad that Eron had insisted they keep a running record on changed made to the structure.

"Has the blacksmith arrived Rielle?" asked Thandran

The question startled Rielle, the arrival of the blacksmith seemed so normal compared to what had happened that night and what they were going to do the next night, Rielle had never expected she would need to flee from her own staff

"I am not sure. Give me a moment and I shall find out" she doubted he had arrived as if he had one of her servants would have told her. "Please help yourself" she indicated to wine and food on the tables.

Leaving the room the first thing Rielle noticed was the silence. The servants had been instructed to clean the house as best they could but she could hear no sounds that this was happening. Rielle picked up her skirts and with the help of her soft shoes silently walked to the front of the manor and looked out the window. Been as she was standing on the second floor and the window she was looking out of was situated exactly above the front door and very large she had a view of the whole courtyard. A lone horse was standing on the cobblestones, still equipped with saddle and reins. Rielle was puzzled. Her stable boys should have dealt with that as soon as it arrived. Looking closer she saw that the saddle bags were full of various tools...that must be the blacksmith's horse she thought but where then is the blacksmith?

Biting her lip Rielle turned and started walking down the stairs, arriving on the landing where the stairs changed direction Rielle stopped. For there on the foyer floor, surrounded by white tiles marked with copious amounts of blood was an old bearded man wearing rough leather clothing. He certainly wasn't a member of staff and as such Rielle suspected he was the blacksmith. Eyes wide Rielle ran back up the stairs and burst into her study to find Thandran busily reading a book simply titled Restoration, not caring about his reading material Rielle quickly walked over to him and panting told him what she'd found

"We have to leave now Thandran!"

When Thandran heard Rielle reenter the room he hastily closed the book and hid it behind him.He turned to see why she was in such a hurry.The look of fear on Rielles face stopped him dead. He snapped back to reality and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Whats going on , whats happened?! An image went through his head but disappeared almost as soon as it had come. An image of the blueprints they had just gone through , they had had an odd imprint on them as if someone had traced over it.

"I am not sure who or what it is but something is in the villa. The blacksmith is dead in the foyer" Rielle appreciated the firm hold Thandran had on her, although she was renown for her tough exterior and hard constitution she felt as though she was going to collapse

"We need to leave now....actually, I may have an idea. There is a 'secret' hallway through the kitchen into the sewers 'neath the house. It isn't secret as such just hidden so guests do not come across it. But it isn't in the book as that was last updated with the addition of the west wing and quests cottage which is essentially a villa on my land that can be used privately. The sewers were however updated only three years ago with the installation of internal plumbing. However I can not say how safe we would be as we go through the house to get to the kitchens which are on the other side of the house and down stairs. It would be more safe than the main door they are surely watching that.....perhaps the kitchen door to the kitchen gardens would be secure? But then we are trapped in an internal walled area...." Rielle's mind was working incredibly fast to try and come up with an alternative route

"OH! If I could somehow get to my private museum of sorts then we could utilise the powers of the legendary ring of Khajiit. You have probably heard of it? Well I have it. However, the trip to where it is stored will take longer than an escape via the kitchen.....Thandran what do we do?"

Thandran thought to himself for a few seconds."If we can get that ring than we can potencially try and get those weapons off the blacksmiths horse. Its just a matter of getting to your museum unseen. Do you know of any good paths that we can take that your servants usually avoid or are less travelled?"

Lorn soon arrived at the palace to find it looked almost the same as when he had left just ti was brighter now... He looked over at the servants and said "Looks like everything is fine, I'm going to go check it out...." As he handed Sariah who was still tied up to one of the servants he walked inside to find what looked to be a balcksmith dead on the ground... He simply shrugged it off and walked past him but as the blood touched his toe in his shoe, he instantly turned around and matched claws with hammer as a bear with large holes in its fur jumped at him and nearly hit his back, "You have been on a rampage lately..." he grunted as it continuosly bashed at him until finally he managed to swing into its head smashing it... As he looked at the bear he noticed small patches of fur were cut out... He saw the marks and knew that this bear was bred as a decoy and looked around, knowing someone was watching as he stepped out and headed towards the group...

OOC: Someone please get their [censored] to the northeastern border and drag Ashina back into the action here

Nirabi didn't know how hard the impact was when she finally hit the ground. But it was hard. She woke up dazed, hot, but shivering on a mattress in what she recognised at once to be an Ashland yurt, and relief flushed her, serving as an anaesthetic more powerful than that she was immediately told to swallow by Sakira. She saw Ashina's stick twist in the background, and was at once tempted to spill the beans on everything, and to counter the glowing recommendation for tutor that Assamma-Idan had benefited from so many years ago. But she couldn't. Assamma-Idan might not have been as fortunate as her in the fall, and she did not want to testify against a kinsman who was probably dead. She still had her own honour to consider, when wondering how to destroy someone else's.
"That was a very close battle," Ashina said, turning around from the paper she was reading from, although still holding it in her hand. "I'm amazed that any of the Imperials escaped, but don't have a clue how a great deal of your hunters were able to return to the camp."
"Which ones didn't?" Nirabi asked, as Sakira forced her to lay down.
"Yan Yenabi was the only Ashlander we lost. He was killed covering the retreat of his sisters and someone called Tussi, who they're looking after. Who is this Tussi, anyway? It's not the Tussi we lost when we raided that border outpost to the south of here, is it? You know, when we first arrived in Cyrodiil?" Nirabi shook her head, not able to speak as Sakira placed a bowl of sapphires and diamonds on her chest.
"No, this is a different Tussi," she said as the weight was taken away, and she watched what Sakira was doing with it. "Why are you doing that?" she asked, as Sakira squeezed the lightning from a Daedra heart into the bowl.
"You're okay, but this will get your heart working again if it was broken in the fall," Sakira replied. "Don't mind me, you don't have to drink this. Continue."
"So who exactly is this Tussi? And why does Assamma-Idan seem to dislike her presence so much? I know that's an Ashlander name, so what is she? Zainab?"
"No, and she's not an Ashlander. She's a prisoner we took on a raid, like you ordered..." Nirabi replied, without much enthusiasm now that she knew Assamma-Idan was alive. "She's a young Imperial girl, I couldn't hurt her, ashkhan! I swear, I didn't know that they were looking for her, I thought we'd tracked down the last patrol at Lake Arrius!" Sakira groaned, taking Nirabi by surprise. Ashina stayed quiet, expecting Nirabi to continue. "I don't have an explanation, Ashina. But I didn't have the strength to kill her, either. So I just welcomed her into the hunt...what are you going to do with her?"
"I should execute her," Ashina replied, but from the start it didn't sound as if she was going to. "But the order to take prisoners was mine, and I wasn't clear in what I meant. We can let her stay with us, until we get to the nearest large town. And, besides, the decision on who joins a hunt is yours when you're the leader. Just don't go around taunting Assamma-Idan, for your own sake. I've ordered him to steer clear of you, it should be no trouble to steer clear of him, as well." Ashina stood up, and handed Nirabi the paper she had been holding. "The Black Horse Courier. Just do what Sakira says, you'll be fine," she said with a smile, and walked out.
She left Nirabi smiling to. She had won her little bet.

Lorn suddenly turned around to see a figure sweep past him as he felt like he was disapearing, he caught a glmipse of the figure as he disapeared as it had red glowing eyes and very long claws... When he reapeared he was in a camp with ashlanders everywhere ((if I messed it up then tell me lol)) and mumbled "where am I....

meanwhile Sariah began to wake up and a muffled high pitched scream was let out as she began to jerk and get out of their grasp not knowing where she was or who they were until she recognised the face of a argonian and glared, she was with the people who had followed them earlier...


OOC: perhaps they don't know it is opened by molag bal (thats the right one right?) and this is a test itself!

Rielle thought for a moment.

"Well the palace used to have internal hidden hallways that would allow slaves to wander the house without been seen. They connected all the main rooms I;however, had most of them filled in as I have no problem with servants walking the same halls as I. But I believe one or two of them remain. Eron insisted I leave a few just as a reminder of what nobles used to be like." opening the book with the villa's blueprints in it Rielle flicked through it

"here we are. There are three left, one from the kitchen to the dinning room, one from the wine cellar to the dinning room and it also seems to branch of to the kitchen and one from the kitchen to one of the larger guest rooms" Rielle looked up at Thandran "none seem particularly useful to our cause as it would be easier to o just walk to the museum. It is on this floor on the other side of the palace. Some 15 minutes away I would guess."

OOC:



That's a bad idea, lore-wise, at least. It would make the thread far more complicated in the long run, I think.

OOC: I know lol, perhaps the altmer "think" they have opened the gate when really it is a test perhaps lol?


As Shilleka was watching the servants, she went outside the door as she smeld some kind of meat to find someone downstairs dead thinking nothing of it. She began to eat the dead, whatever it was and suddenly looked up as she heard a scream outside and ran out to find someone tied up and a servant holding her mouth shut.

As Sariah saw the troll she bit the servants hand and while the hand was removed called out "help me" showing a hand sign though her hands were tied up as the troll began to snarl looking at the Spertikitus and the others before jumping at them as they made a small run while the troll chased them around...

OOC: I don't quite get that, but I guess it will work

"Where do we go now, then?" Nirabi asked, when Sakira put the bowl of lightning back onto her chest. It was weightless, much to Nirabi's relief.
"Ashina's thinking of holding here for a while. There are fierce storms to the east that she doesn't want to walk us into."
"What do you plan to do now, then?" Nirabi asked, remembering something Sakira had told her in confidence. "If you can't get into Morrowind, you can't start a rising."
"I'll just wait here. Ashina's staying still, she won't turn back unless someone can convince her to. And I don't think the others in that little party the Empire's put together are going to come and find her."
"She could send a runner, Sakira," Nirabi continued. Sakira laughed.
"Not after your hunting party was almost wiped out," she grinned.
"Strange, that," Nirabi mused. "That bridge collapsing, I mean. It looked strong enough. It was strong enough."
"Maybe the Imperials destroyed it."
"Maybe...but if they did, they killed their own soldiers. And we were the only ones with battlemages."
"It could have just given way in the crush, you know..."
"How do you know about the crush?" Nirabi sharply turned to Sakira in confusion.
"I don't. Now hold still."
The bowl glowed, and the lightning surged destroyed itself on Sakira's command, as it combined in a whirlwind into a great bolt and darted for the bowl again. The shock left Nirabi breathless, and again dazed, but the lightning dissipated and the bowl was taken off of her.
"Do you feel any better?" Sakira asked with a smile, that was not as professional as Nirabi would have liked. The clanholder could sit up, at least, without Sakira forcing her back down.
"I feel like an elf again, that's for sure. Thanks. Where is Assamma-Idan, I'd like to speak with him?"
"Ashina said..."
"Ashina doesn't know the half of it. Where is Assamma-Idan?"
"I'm not saying, Nirabi. I don't want either of you two coming to blows again," Sakira scowled, before walking out, leaving Nirabi in her yurt surrounded by questions. How had Sakira known about that?

As Lorn looked around he saw what looked to be gaurds aproaching him and, knowing only few thigns from his history books as a child, put his eapons down slowly raising his hands in the air as one of them asked "who are you?"

"I am Lorn Rocklaner..."

"I don't think he is imperial captain!" one of the newer recruits called out as the gaurd glared at him



((at the mansion))

Spertikitus was getting rather tired of running from the troll and produced a calming charm with his lute still looking at the beast as it swayed slightly and stopepd attacking as they quickly wrapped a shred of cloth around Sariah's mouth so she couldn't get the troll's help when the spell wore off and waited for Rielle and Thandran outside...

((In IC))

As Gratch grew tired of waiting he started to open a small gate to the epherial planes as he had done in the past to travel through solid objects when Darlith jabbed him with his elbow so that it was broken "are you crazy?"

"no, just impatient..." suddenly the door opened and an Altmer stared at them with a slight anoyance in his face

"umm... dawn is breaking?" Darlith said jokingly as Gratch reached a hand out of the rag to shake his hands as a small pulse of magicka went through his vains making his voice less raspy and hoarse

"I'm sorry for my aprentices lack of knowledge on how to address someone, may we help you?" also being ignorant of the fact that the elf may not have known that they had known of their presense a while back...

After much discussion Rielle and Thandran decided to split paths and meet again in one hour at the large bridge spanning the entrance to the upper niben. It was Thandran's task to creep to the museum and not only get the ring of kajit, but any other fabled items he considered necessary. Then when wearing the ring and as such invisible he would continue his task of collecting essential items from the armory, kitchens, and alchemy lab. Rielle on the other hand would flee the mansion with spertikitus and hopefully make it to the bridge.

Bidding farewell Rielle and Thandran left the study and parted. Rielle silently hurried along the halls her aim was the kitchen door. From there she would climb over the courtyard wall and then be in the fields where with luck the horses would be. From there she would ride to safety. And the nine permitting on the way she would see spertikitus and he would join her, or if he chose remain with Thandran.

Rielle felt sad as she wandered the ruined mansion. Not only for the destruction of her holiday home, but also for the notion that she may never see her loyal assistant or Thandran ever again. Anger flashed across her mind, she could feel the complete irritation at Lorn bubbling inside of her. She could think of no explanation that would justify his behaviour; however, she was also hoping to se him again so he could explain his reasons. Rielle was not willing to be adamant in her feelings toward him and would, and prayed that she would, forgive him. In the distance she could hear the sounds of people, be they talking or otherwise she could not distinguish. but they sounded far of and as such a level of security came over Rielle, yet she also quickened her pace anxious.

Arriving at the kitchen with no enemy intervention or for that matter ally intervention. Although the house was huge it was small enough that she should have meet someone. Cautiously opening the kitchen door Rielle peeked inside, and gasped. For standing tall and broad in the middle of the kitchen was somesort of imperial hybrid. It was only on further examination that Rielle realised the imperial man was actually hanging from a rope looped over one of the heavy roof support beams. Sighing with relief Rielle tiptoes into the kitchen, incredibly creeped out by this dead man before her Rielle's pace practically broke into a run. The kitchens were incredibly extensive and it would take a good five minutes for her to reach the kitchen door, and to do so she would have to face her back toward to the strange man. Rielle made her decision and broke into a run only to hear a loud crash behind her. Stopping Riellle turned to find the beam broken and the man gone.

As Thandran made his way down the stairs that would take him in the direction of the museum he was suddenly afraid that something would have to Rielle when he was gone and that he would be helpless to stop it. He forced himself to think about the situation at hand and how he would get across the house and possibly passed a whole house of servants to reach the ring. At least he knew that when he found it his job would be made much easier.By now he was down the stairs and half way across the foyer when he heard a sound to his left. He had time to hide behind a rather large clock before a pair of kajit appeared. They walked across the room and passed where he had been moments earlier. One started sniffing when it caught his scent. As silently as he could he worked his way out from behind the clock and bolted across the room behind them. They spun around but he was already out of the room. Flattening himself against a wall Thandran looked back to see if they were following but they had not given chase. It seems they had better things to do than chase shadows. He crouched low and kept walking in the shadows.

half an hour later , he seemed to be going through the same rooms over and over. But in fact the house was so big , he had been walking for half an hour yet had only gotten half way across the house. Despite avoiding what could of been servants several times he still had the bad feeling someone was nearby and that he was going to get jumped.His fear was confirmed. As he turned a corner and stopped dead. Down the other end of the hallway was a dremora. It saw him and yelled something that Thandran didn't understand.Remembering he was unarmed he did the only thing he could. he ran. He jumped into a side room , barely dodging the charging demon.Seeing a door on the other side of the room he ran to it and pulled it open. He forgot everything about the directions that Rielle had told him , now all he could think of was getting away from the demon behind him that clearly wanted only his blood.Thandran slammed the door shut and locked it. The Dremora crashed into the door but it didn't budge. Soon the sounds of it trying to break the door down shook the walls. Confident the door would hold for some time Thandran turned around. What he saw made him gasp. The room was entirely black , as if at night. And filling the room were the stars and the planets and the moons...

As Spertikitus suddenly heard a lot of oise inside the mansion but unsure if it was safe or not for the servants, he summoned a squirrel ((yes a squirrel XD)) using his lute that quickly entered the house scurying by as it say a half eaten human and a dead bear that seemed to be rotting for weeks by now...

As it ran further it found a dremora banging on a door and quickly jumped on it's face as it swung at its own head, as the dremora let out a small yell it turned around and started bashing into the floor trying to kill the squirrel though it was pointless until finally it caught the squirrel in a corner as the black shroud with long claws that had teleported Lorn moved by as if it wasn't even there... ((feel free to make a monster of the "Black shroud" as long as you keep its long claws and red eyes XD))

Thandran heard the banging behind him cease but paid it no heed. He was memorized by the room he had stumbled upon. Carefully he walked through the room. He held out a hand as he came up on what looked like their planet but his hand went right through it.He looked closer at it and could make out details . inspecting it carefully he came across Temriel and as a little joke to himself looked for where they would be. He was scared when he actually found it.It appeared where it hadn't been earlier as if it had known he wanted it.The vision expanded rapidly until it filled the whole room than it zoomed in until all he could see was a birds eye view of the palace. What happened next he found overwhelming. A miniature Rielle appeared out of a window on the side of the house , jumped a wall than ran across the fields. Thandran stepped back in shock and suddenly everything went back to normal.He shook his head to escape the apparition and noticed a door on the side of the room. He walked over and opened it to find it led to another section of the house.He decided to follow it.

OOC This house is sure full of odd things o_O

As the Argonian saw through the squirrels eyes he immeadiatly unsummoned it as the servants looked at him in confusion before he said "been a hell f a lot of people chacing us and even more in the house..." as he looked at the others momentarily and the Nord tied up glared at him...

OOC: I think I've got an idea to get Ashina back to the rest of you.

Nirabi shrugged it off. Sakira had no reason to have destroyed the bridge, and Nirabi herself was not in the mood to go around flinging wild accusations when Ashina could easily fling some back regarding the whole Tussi incident. She simply made herself comfortable, as she appeared to be in her own yurt, and went to sleep.
The entire camp, besides the sentries, did the same. The howling winds and the impenetrable wall of snow combined could not breach the walls of the yurts, and the Ashlanders were tired enough to sleep outside if necessary.
Ashina, however, did not go to sleep immediately. She lay on her bedroll of alit leather, and let her thoughts wander far from the Valus Mountains. What were Gavin and Lorn doing right now?

OOC man is that house cool ha ha.

Rielle ran across the field, faster than she had ever moved before, trying to escape from the imperial that had somehow disappeared. She feared for Thandran. Not only was he alone in her house essentially unarmed but with some sort of man after her. She had prayed more to the nine in the last few days than she ever had in her life, and now she uttered another. She prayed that the gods get Thandran out of the house alive and well, she prayed that he not find any of the more dangerous things in her house and she prayed that they rendevous successfully at the bridge.

Rielle continued running across the wide field, looking for a horse. Finally she spotted one. However, it was not familiar. It was a very dark colour, which was completely opposite to the white horses Rielle only kept. She knew nobody she knew, not even Thandran or Lorn had such a dark horse. Deciding that she would rather walk than ride that particular horse Rielle changed direction and abandoning her want for a horse ran toward the road.

Thandran took the unknown door. He carefully pushed it open and peered inside.This room was darker than the last one but beside the door a unlit torch hang on the wall. He grabbed it off the wall and walked back into the globe room , lit it off a torch in there (although he wandered how those ones were lit despite the room looking like it hadn't been touched in years) and went back into the dark room. The torch light revealed a room that was empty. Thandran walked into the middle and found it was empty. No windows , no doors , no furniture , nothing. He signed and dropped the torch. When it hit the floor the fire licked against the stone paving heating it up. Within seconds several circles started to glow around him in the floor. They lit up so brightly that they room was shaded in a blue aura.It was followed by a deafening roar. Thandran threw his hands up to cover his ears and fell to his knees , cradling his head in his arms. Peeking out from the cover of his arms he saw something odd. The sounds had stopped but now on 3 of the walls were several shimmering ovals. Within the ovals were flickering , moving pictures of different rooms in the house. He saw the Kitchen , the museum and a room he had never seen before that was full of odd looking alchemy equipment and books. The sight of the museum made his heart race. Jumping to his feet he walked over to image. As a test he thrust the torch into it and it went straight through appearing at the other side. Taking a deep breathe had made up his mind. He stepped through the image and found himself in a different room. He spun around around and looked at the wall. It was blank and covered with a old looking painting. Turning back to the room he set out to find the ring.

OOC I hope im not going to far with all of this but im trying to imply there's many dark secrets in this house that not even Rielle knows about.

"So Blackrith, when will Rielle get here, i grow inpatient." "Hopefully soon, i fear that something may have happened to her and usually my suspicions turn out correct." Baltack tried standing up but was still very tired from the teleporting spell and collapsed. "Baltack you must not move, you have worn yourself out and need to rest" As Blackrith was eating he thought that he might be have to abandon his Guard duties forever, it was getting too mixed up with the Dark Brotherhood duties and his own causes of finding his family history. "Do the guards ever come in here to look, someone is bound to want to buy this house eventually." Blackrith laughed and replied "The Dark Brotherhood did what the did to the Cheydinhal Count, threats and bribes of money, it allways keep's their mouths closed shut, now brother let's get some rest." and they layed down and went to sleep.

(( So when exactly are any of us gonna get to the Oblivion gate? :/ ))

OOC: I don't know lol, my favorite part of an RP is extending it with extra bits here and there so it could be 5-200 posts lol



Sjilleka suddenly heard someone or something running through the grass and quickly began running through the fields to find Rielle and followed, staying out of her way...


Meanwhile Greenleaf was shaking as Spertikitus tried to hold her down ((Lorn's horse for those wondering...)) until finally he had to hand it to the servants when he saw something he couldn't make out completely but http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm_gallery/Bodak.jpg as one of the servants took a worn out old bow off the horse and one of the arrows aiming at the strange creature as it walked towards them... The arrows were having little affect as it started to quicken its pace!

OOC:



Ashina will stumble into one very soon.

Finally the servants let go of the horse and it kicked the figure as it aproached as a hiss was heard and it hit a wall with it's long claws that now seemed to resemble fingers touched a plant and it shriveled up...

They didn't stick around but let the horse go as it went to go after the creature...

((because I'd rather not wait: I'll be gone april 16-17 on choir buisness mountain time so on those days feel free to use my chars a bit, Lorn is with gallowglass, Spertikitus and Shilleka are with Damin, and Gratch and Darlith are with Alissor of Alinor sorry for the mispell but part was cut off))

OOC: taking a vote for innactive character usage ( note that this is only because their are a few characters on the knights team who haven't posted since the last thread)