Chapter 1: Awakenings
Taren woke in an instant, the soul gem sitting where he left it, on the stand with the soul syphon that his father had built before his untimely death, you see Taren had clearly inherited his father's abilities of scavenging and ingenuity. The original plans for the syphon stand were for it to be used as a home defence mechanism, however, Taren soon found that not long after the dragon crisis ended, skyrim had become a far more peaceful place to live, not only was the dragon threat vanquished, but the imperial legion quickly gained a victory over the stormcloaks, this gave them a greater hold over the land, allowing them to tackle bandit raids and theft far easier, so the stand was merely used to jolt Taren slightly into waking. Taren rarely used the system, but nevertheless there the soul gem sat ready for the next slight shock. The young man leapt out of the bed, which was made from the pelt of two wolves and oak straight from valenwood and immediately began began preparing for his first day with the dawnguard, he practically jumped into his leather and steel armour, which was strong enough to withstand a blow to the face from an elven arrow and then used the telekinesis spell to fetch his crossbow, which was pre-loaded with a bolt designed to fracture upon impact in order to maximise the deadly impact. The last thing Taren would be, was late.
Taren kicked open the riften gate and jumped off the gate onto the roof of the stable, he then swung from the roof and jumped onto his horse with perfect precision and off into the woods they rode. Taren and Banshire rode past caves, lakes, villages, towns, cascading waterfalls and fallen watchtowers. Until finally, he and Banshire were at the border where they were ordered to halt by an Imperial guard 'stop right there. By order of the emperor, all travellers, merchants, sellswords, farmers, adventurers and any other such citizen of the empire or otherwise who wishes to keep his or her head, must have their papers examined by a member of the Imperial Legion.' Taren promptly smiled and rustled in his satchel for his papers. 'I believe you'll find everything you need on these.' Taren said as he held out the travellers documents. The legionnaire seemed intrigued as he read through the documents, these papers had every detail about Taren's being, from his date and location of birth, to his career prospects, it was law that at the the end of the year, these papers were to be updated by an imperial scribe. The soldier continued to look amongst the documents until finally he remarked 'Ah a member of the Dawnguard, eh? I thought you people were beginning to become a niche group, but you seem all right for a budding vampire fighter.'
'Those sheets only detail the fact I am with the dawnguard, not how long I have been with them. How could you have possibly known that I am new to the group?'
'You don't have the look of an experienced vampire hunter, when someone has been fighting the undead for years then they usually adopt the look of a stern, stoic warrior'
'Fair enough' Taren conceded before trotting off on his horse.
They continued to trot down the unusually warm road, until Taren came across a river where he decided to unmount and take a drink, the water was cool, refreshing and restored his energy like a potion of vigorous stamina. But something was off. Before he could investigate, two wolves leapt from the shadows cast by the nearby trees. Taren quickly drew his sword and ducked away from the first pouncing wolf, before grabbing his shield and Pounding the second into the ground, he turned his head, expecting to see the first beginning a second attack, only to see his horse kicking at the wolf. The sword went forward and stabbed the wolf as the second was turned into a bloody mess. The second wolf appeared to be but a cub and the first it's remaining parental figure, Taren saw the remaining pelt of the youthful creature, but felt no pang in his stomach, no great pain within himself. No guilt.
They continued along the road until they came across the Dawnguard castle, upon his arrival, Taren's best friend Ulysses ran up to him, the cobble roads rattled with theirh collisions with his iron boots. 'Oi Taren, ready for your initiation?' Taren nodded and dismounted, leaving his horse at the stables near the courtyard just in front of the castle. The two men trotted along the cobbled path to the stone stairs. When they arrived, Taren began to talk about the vampire crisis, about how it had the potential to overthrow the deadly force that the dragon crisis posed not that long ago, the two of them quickly displayed their thoughts. Ulysses was very concerned about the subject, whereas Taren was eager to wage war against the creatures. They soon arrived at the the huge gates to the stronghold where Cindral was waiting for him 'ah, you're here' the old redguard said as soon as they entered the marble halls 'I was beginning to worry that the wolves had gotten you' 'oh they were no problem' 'so, where do I get my official dawnguard membership ring?' Taren said jokingly, Cindral pointed him in the direction of the armory and began to describe the mission Taren would take 'it is called the twilight sepulchre, supposed stronghold and patrol base of the legendary nightingales, the leaders of the thieves guild, who just so happen to be situated in your own hometown, riften. Inside the twilight sepulchre is the rumoured home of the legendary vampire Agrivore, known for killing hundreds of our men in the dawnguard wars, and for keeping a small army of fledglings around him at all times, it is your mission to make your way through the twilight sepulchre and destroy Agrivore and his fledglings. Do this and you shall join our ranks. You are authorised to take 30 crossbow bolts from the armory.' Cindral started to walk away before stopping and saying 'one other thing, Ulysses will be accompanying you on this mission'
Taren walked outside to feel the Cyrodiilic sun gloss over his densely packed leather and steel armour, bathing him in the heat of a flame atronach, he realised that it would take a small while to get from the dawnguard castle to the twilight sepulchre, so he began to plot a route.
When he and Ulysses arrived at Agrivore's lair, it was almost midday, but inside the cave's doors it was just as dark as any other time, torches kept a grim, hollow light, while skeletons littered the stone floor and septims scattered the crevices between the stones that kept the roof aloft. On either side of the entranceway, there were two coffins housing The bones of heroes long forgotten, perhaps some of which were guild masters that wore the revered grey cowl the halls were made of an unidentifiable black rock with relatively smooth centres which held together the razor sharp edges of the bricks. Banners depicting shadow images of people and various objects littered the walls, the majority of which were tattered and held together by threads, the halls themselves were cramped, claustrophobic, with walls barely able to sustain one person. As the two of them wandered down the corridors descending deeper and deeper into the stone fortress, they noticed rotted wood hanging from the ceiling, with long rusted iron hanging from the twisted oak, clearly lights were lit goat horns would hang from to give light to the rock staircase. As they entered the next room, Taren caught sight of a group of vile falmer (the twisted remaining form of the mighty snow elves) lurking in the shadows, no more than three were visible, this should be no problem for two warriors of the dawnguard. Taren beckoned Ulysses to follow and Ulysses obliged, the two of them stalking forward across the grey stone floor towards the creatures, soon, they finally were right next to one of them whom of was swiftly stabbed by Taren's blade, another fell victim to Ulysses' axe, the last of the trio was thrown against the wall by Taren, before a swift shot of his crossbow, the first however, stabbed Ulysses in the left arm socket with it's scythe, which was made from the same stone as the walls. Ulysses cried out at the pain. Taren turned around only to see the second running at him with an indescribable weapon, he quickly dodged to the left and plunged his sword into its stomach. Satisfied with their work, the two of them walked towards the door before hearing a strange sound behind them, and from the dark leapt at least five falmer gloomlurkers. The new crowd was far stronger than the ones that they had just faced, as evident by the two arrows lodged within Ulysses' shield in the first three seconds with a third and forth soon to come. Taren managed to bash one into a wall dazing it, but they were outnumbered and outmatched, all seemed lost, until a blazing green light projected in all directions, with Ulysses as the centre, suddenly all of the falmer stopped attacking and began pacing the room, giving the two of them their chance to escape. It must have been hours before they escaped the narrow corridors and found themselves in an open room once more, this one was far bigger than the last, and had far more falmer in it, the room was filled to the brim with twisting, wide pathways, that began at ground level and slowly made their way, through turns and intersections, to the darkness that smothered the ceiling. Small huts were strewn across the river of grey, all of which were made entirely of chaurus chitin, several tables were around the open area, all of which were housing all manner of poison. The moment the two of them entered the room, they were ambushed by five different falmer, instinctively, Taren went for his sword but when he tried, he realised that one of them was grabbing his arms with its long, boney, withered, infected hands. He tried looking up, only to be met with a blinding light emitting from the creatures hand.
Taren woke up in a strange, hollow, grey cone, lit gently by ragged green gems hanging from the ceiling, by looking a little downwards, he was able to get a good view of one of the falmer who, assumably captured him, the creature had an appearance almost reminiscent of a skeleton, with the flesh strongly clenching to the bones, to the point where Taren could see the cracks and bumps in the bone, the face was scrunched together, with the eyes permanently closed. The scalp of the beast was smooth and hairless, the ears, torn and ragged.
The creature eventually began to leave and at that very moment, Taren leapt into action by grabbing him by the throat and covering the mouth, the falmer quickly fell and Taren was able to escape. Luckily, they hadn't taken his gear, so he thought he would have to fight his way out, until he left the hut and saw Ulysses standing over a pile of bodies, with blood all over his gauntlets, Taren simply smiled and the two walked on.
wasn't long before they came across a magnificent statue of a snow elf, broken, cracked, but mostly intact. In the eye sockets lay a large crystal, Taren began to walk towards the head, Ulysses instructed him to stop, but his headstrong and greedy nature prevented him from moving away, but before he could touch the eye, a crossbow bolt struck him in the back, the next thing he saw was Ulysses walking away.
As Taren struck the ground, he realised his crossbow was still loaded, in mere moments, he had pulled the trigger, sending the bolt flying towards Ulysses, the carvings pointed toward the back, the bolt smashed on impact, knocking him to the floor.
Taren's energy was suddenly gone.
Taren slipped from consciousness.