Cearbhail:

This chapter took me three days to write. It's very long. And... I will be adding a chapter to this. Since this is longer than I thought, I am adding a chapter for Vatu's and Erandur's side of the experience. And you get to see what became of everyone after their battles. You know... who died, who killed themselves, and everything like that.

Also... I'm very excited to announce something. It will be down below, but... here's a sneak peak. You know that story that I said was a 'beta in my head'? No? Well, you'll find out down below. I've never mentioned it... until now anyway.

=^^= Enjoy...

[Vatu]

Ruin and Dwarves Character Sheet

Player Name: Prashin

Name: Tinkerring

Race: Fairy, female

Class: Firefly

Age: 11

Hair Color: Blue

Eye Color: Pink

Weight: 16 ounces, one pound

Size: 1'2''

Fears: Not thinking happy thoughts, boys in tights, cats.

Preferred Enemies: Cats, people not thinking happy thoughts.

Religious Beliefs: Clapping your hands will bring me back to life.

…

"You could have been anything… and you chose to be yourself?"

Seeing Junna standing next to my materialized character was weird. She looked exactly the same as she did outside the illusionary world of Morrowind. She wore the same robes, the same kit she normally wore on her belt, and the same staff she carried on her back.

Junna shrugged at my question. "I'm comfortable with who I am. Besides, I always liked to add myself to my favorite games. Thinking of how I would deal with situations and whatnot, so… it just became a tradition. I don't need to role-play… I'm a role, and I'm here to play." She slammed a fist into an open palm, grinning madly as she looked over at me. "And… what are you? You look… a lot like my brother…" She looked me over. "Tough muscles, light black tiger stripes…"

"I do have tiger stripes you know."

She waved it off. "Yeah, but you're orange in real life, your character is a light gray."

"It's because I'm a scout. Having gray fur adds to stealth bonuses, makes it easier to blend in."

She nodded like she already knew that. "Yeah, it does. Makes sneaking out of the house a lot easier too." She finally walked around me, looking at the rest of my character. "I think I get what kind of person you are now. You're a rogue, aren't you?" She pointed at me, smiling. "Never mind the fact that I heard you're a scout in the battlemages… and in this game you're a rogue. Two short swords, reliability on stealth. You probably don't have any spell slots with this character but… you do have Night Eye, being Khajiit and all that. So… I'm guessing you're the assassin of the group?"

Assassin? I… I never thought of it like that. That sounded a lot worse than close-range stealth specialist. What was I in real life? I'm a scout, and intelligence collector. My character might be reliable in close-range combat, but if I entered a fight with bows and arrows, I'd probably be horrible. I had a bow and a few arrows though, not a lot.

My thoughts of that were broken apart when Nexa's and Primrose's characters started jogging up to me. I knew Nexa was the Khajiit battlemage, one that looked a lot like me… if I was a girl. And that… that did not make me feel very welcome to make out with her. It felt weird making out with something that looked almost exactly like me. I'm not that egotistical. Still, for Nexa to remember that much about how I looked, I was almost appreciative. Still not kissing the girl version of me though.

Primrose, on the other hand, looked a lot like Nexa. Green-scaled Argonian with long blue feathers with yellow tips sprouting out of her head. Jeez… these two. Nexa thinks I love myself so she creates a character that reflects me… Primrose on the other hand thinks I love Nexa and creates a character to reflect that too. Why couldn't they just have fun and make their own individual characters? I guess Primrose's character might reflect herself. Her character was at least a healer with white robes and blue feathers. Still, seeing what kind of character Nexa could create would be intriguing to me, and I might learn more about her, stuff I don't really know about.

Of course, that was the fun of playing games like this. Seeing what other people create for their characters, things they like to think of, situations they prefer to handle. And then… you have players like Prashin.

Looking over at the floating pixy fairy flying around the illusionary world, laughing his heart out as he did aerial flips and whatnot, I had no idea he could have so much creative freedom with his characters. Who decides to play a fairy in Ruins and Dwarves anyway? He knew we'd be fighting monsters and whatnot. Was he really ok with playing as a support healing character?

"Hey, Vats!" Nexa called out to me. She walked right up to me, grabbing onto my character's robes, pulling me in. She was about to pull me in for a kiss. Jeez… being grabbed by a feminine version of myself to be kissed… every man's dream, said no one ever.

"Back off!" Junna screamed as she shoved Nexa away from me, which drew a surprise from the Khajiit. "He's with me!" Junna pointed to herself.

Nexa looked perplexed, which translated well in Khajiit fashion. Her tail flicked, her fur stood on end… it was amazing the amount of detail Lilly's spell went for when it came to this stuff. Nexa continued to stand there for a few seconds, her tail flicking, looking at Junna in what I think was a confused guessing game of 'who could this person be'. "Nisha?" Nexa finally asked.

"Here!" The Altmer watching Prashin fly around stuck up her hand.

Nexa looked from Junna over to where Nisha's character was standing. She did not expect this, I'm sure. And, as I guessed, Nexa walked away from us, keeping her eyes on Junna as she walked over to Nisha. When Nexa finally made it over to her, she pointed over at Junna, talking to her in hushed tones. Nisha's character only shrugged and shook her head. Nexa practically exploded. "She's your girlfriend?!" She screamed to me.

I shrugged. "She broke me." Though not entirely true. She's not my girlfriend, but Nexa doesn't need to know that. I'm sick of these games, but even I like to see Nexa riled up. I kind of want to see how Primrose and Nexa will react if they think it is true.

Primrose only sighed. "She beat me to it." Wow, that kind of went the way I expected it to. Now… I expect Nexa will try to kill Junna. And then… I will have to tell both of them I'm not dating her.

Nexa looked at both Primrose and me. She looked lost for words. She finally settled on looking at Primrose. "And you're ok with this?"

Primrose only shrugged. "I'm ok with Vatu being with whoever makes him happy. I can find someone else. Sure, I love him, but real love means being able to let go."

"No, fuck that." Nexa replied. "I just have to kill the girl, and then Vatu will have to move onto someone else."

"Kill me?" Junna growled. "You think it will be so easy?"

I looked back at Junna. "It really would be." I pointed over at Nexa. "She's the Warlord of Black Marsh's daughter. The Princess of Black Marsh."

"Queen of Shadows now." Nexa crossed her arms. "Killed my dad yesterday."

"Really?" I asked. I guess she would have to if it meant being able to play this game today. So… that's one problem fixed. Lilly told us that the war was finally over and it was up to us to make sure the rest of it went over well. All we had to do was activate the machine and use it to absorb the excess energy of the closing Shield bubble. And Uncle J'skar was busy digging the pyramid up while we played our two hours of campaign. Speaking of which, it was almost time for us to start. All three parties were here so… I guess it was more or less time to start. Might as well stop messing with my two friends. They deserved to know the truth of my situation. "That's great. Oh… and Junna's not my girlfriend. She just wants to be."

Primrose smiled a bit. She looked over at Junna. "Hi, I'm Primrose. I'll be fighting you for Vatu."

She smirked. "Oh? Sounds fun. Want some popcorn?" She pulled out a bag of popcorn out of her mysterious portal bag.

Primrose, the Argonian white-robe, looked down at the popcorn with curiosity. "Is it poisoned?" She looked over at me for clarification.

I shook my head. "She's not like Nexa. She's… actually pretty normal."

"NO, I'm not!" Junna screamed at me. "I'm not normal, not at all! Don't lie!" She handed the popcorn off to Primrose, and then turning to face me. "There is no one in the world like me; you just don't know me yet." She winked at me before turning to face Primrose. She crossed her arms as Nexa started eating the popcorn. "And you…" She scanned Primrose for a few seconds. "I won't lose to you, whoever you are. And please consider the popcorn a gift from your new rival/bestie."

"I'm the closest thing Vatu has had to a girlfriend so far." She munched on the popcorn, nodding her thanks. "Thanks for the popcorn, by the way. But… as for my experience with Vatu? So far, we've shared a tent, kissed, I healed every inch of his body… every inch… I've been in his mind, I've been in his heart, and… well…" She shrugged. "I shouldn't speak of that part to anyone but Vatu."

I glanced over at Junna. She looked pretty flustered. She glanced at me. "Is all of that true?"

"All but the last implied part, yes." I nodded. She looked a little defeated but I decided it wasn't really worth my time to reassure her that I liked her or anything like that. I seriously don't care anymore. One love interest, I could handle; two… that started to bother me. Now, it seemed like every girl, and maybe a few boys, were chasing after me. Gods only know what will happen if I have to go to new versions of this world and meet new people that might fall in love with me as well. Speaking of people I thought were love interests, I wondered where Davilia was. I didn't see her or Erandur in our little gathering.

I looked over at Primrose. "Where's Erandur and Dav?"

She shrugged. "Over there, making out." She pointed to the shed where slaves used to live in at the end of the ash farm. "Yesterday was a long day for us. I passed out before it ended, but when I woke up, Erandur was pretty much out of it. Davilia woke him up, Hans cleaned up the mess… and… well… we're helping to rebuild Alinor's Colleges of Magicka Arts. It got ruined when an Aedric Goddess tried to kill us."

What on nirn happened over there? I miss out on one quest and an Aedric Queen tried to kill my friends? I thought they were just infiltrating the Dominion to find and destroy the moon base. "Is everyone ok?"

Primrose nodded. "Oh… yeah. We're just fine. A little bruised and whatnot, but we're ok. Just relaxing and eating some fine Fat Burger." Ooh… Fat Burger, home of the fat burger… they are so welcome to take my order any day.

"I'm so jealous."

She shrugged. "Well, you know… it was the only thing not destroyed by Nrillia. She must really love Fat Burger."

"Ok, that's enough!" Lord Neloth, who was really Lilly, clapped his hands. "It is time to begin. Ready yourselves. The campaign will resume shortly. Team 1, your RM will direct you; Team 2, same; Team 3, same. Ready… and…" She clapped her hands.

I was teleported to a new area, away from Nexa or Primrose. But… I was standing next to Junna and the rest of my team. So, the teams were running different quests then. Lord Neloth was standing in front of us, clearing his throat. He started pacing in front of us, beginning to tell us what we were going to be doing this game.

Junna quickly turned to face me. "So… how close are you to that girl? Primrose?"

"Silence!" Neloth yelled at Junna, making her cringe her shoulders in response. "We are in-game. Now, act like it. Character names from here on out and become your characters you play. We can socialize after the game is over." Neloth cleared his throat again, gesturing to the mountain behind him. "At the base of this mountain is a tower filled with corprus monsters. This tower is what keeping the Ghostgate active. Now, unfortunately, the Ghostgate is becoming weaker, and is only keeping in the sickest of the monsters, the strongest that could potentially destroy all of Tamriel. Now… we need to get inside and fix the gate. While we are doing this, there are two more squads working in different ways to keep the Ghostgate closed, including on team working on invading a Dwemer ruin for a special artifact that will help restore the barrier's strength, and one squad invading the Ghostgate and setting up a bomb in Red Mountain. With the eruption… we will destroy all the corprus monsters, all of Vvardenfell… and parts of Morrowind. But… that is our last resort. It will get rid of the corprus monsters, sparing the world from its vileness, but we will all lose our lives in the process."

"So, this gate is probably heavily defended?" Jessaline, our Imperial Witchhunter asked.

Neloth nodded. "Indeed. It would be preferable to find a secret entrance. I expect the two scouts of the group to go find it."

And that would be me… and… I looked at Jessaline. "So, me and the Imperial?" She fit the bill pretty good. She's an archer, even if she is decked out in plated shiny armor. As I looked around the group, there weren't a lot of choices for stealth other than me. The dwarf cleric was wearing heavy armor too, the Altmer mage… nah… and I'm guessing the Nordic Shouter is probably not going to be much of a sneaker either. That leaves me with Junna and the firefly, but surely that would not happen. It was going to be the Imperial. I just knew it.

Lord Neloth shook his head, and instead pointed to Junna and then to Prashin. Go figure. "Those two. Junna can support you with spells, and has natural sneak ability being a female Khajiit. Not to mention a rogue mentality as one of her perks. The pixie can fly in the sky, avoid most attention, even take attention away from you, and can cast supportive magics related to sneaking abilities."

Junna smirked as she looked over at me. "Well, well, well. Looks like we're partners." The universe just loves messing with me, doesn't it?

…

[Meesei]

Ruins and Dwarves Character Sheet

Player Name: Oleeme Puparammanx

Name: Sanguine

Race: Daedra Prince

Class: Daedra Prince

Age: Who knows?

Hair Color: Spikes, spines, horns.

Eye Color: Fifty shades of Sanguine.

Weight: Sanguine

Size: Sanguine

Fears: Sanguine, the party that never ends ending.

Preferred enemies: The bottom of the barrel, party poopers.

Religious beliefs: Bros before Hoes, The Party never ends, and the only true weight of a person is measured through how much he can drink before he passes out, and up until that point… you can learn a lot about him.

…

Why was I here?

Looking at my hands, seeing the bright yellow skin of an Altmer, dressed in black necromancy robes, and I'm sure I have two braids running down my back. I'm an Altmer necromancer? Why did I agree to do this? With Nakuma sleeping in the medical ward recovering from her wounds she took in her fight with her brother, Oleeme dragged me to our game to play as her character while she recovered. I think he was worried about me. I wonder if he noticed me trying to take the poison earlier. I think he knew I almost tried to kill myself. Well, I'm glad I didn't. As it turned out, Ram-ku wasn't dead like I thought he was. He was in the same condition Nakuma was in… alive, but barely. Both Oleeme and I were beside ourselves, worried for their recovery, but as Oleeme stated, us sitting next to them all day would not help them. We needed to recharge our batteries. It's only for two hours. They're not going anywhere. We're all sitting in the infirmary. If anyone needed us, they could just contact Oleeme. He'd pause our campaign if it was an urgent matter.

Looking around at the rest of the squad, all I could see was the irritated Khajiit pacing back and forth. "He's got another one? I went through all this for him, and… he has someone knew?"

A white elf walked around beside her, trying to calm her down. "You don't know… maybe it's fate. Perhaps you should try to move on too?"

She sighed, reaching up for her muzzle. "I should try to calm down. I just… I have to rethink this."

There was a flash of light, a portal to Oblivion opening up. Out came staggering a drunken Daedra, wearing a crown made up of an old beer hat. When the portal snapped shut, the drunken Daedra looked around at us. "Wow… you're who she sent? What was she thinking, sending me a bunch of misfits? Oh… who am I kidding? Why did she even send me? I guess it will have to do." He shrugged. He pointed to himself, nodding. "Yes, yes. I'm the great Prince of Debauchery… Sanguine. I… am here to take your virginities… your money… and then throw you into the never-ending party that is my realm. But first, we have to save Tamriel from being boring, and what's more boring than zombies? Corprus zombies. That's right, I said corprus. So, we're going to do something… a little fun. We're going to a Dwemer City of Falasmaryon. In there, we will find a creature guarding a device that can strengthen a special barrier that will help defend our world from creatures that aren't a lot of fun at parties."

"Is that all?" I asked. Everyone looked over at me. I ended up shrugging. "I've never played this game. I don't know what to expect."

"Game?" Sanguine asked with a slur. "Life is a game. All that matters is how you play it. Party with me, and I promise you… you'll win in the end." He winked at me. Oh gods… was this really Oleeme? I thought he was just a husk. What was going on? Sanguine turned around, waving us to follow him. "Now, if there are no more questions of my favorite position and why… let's go delving for batteries, shall we?"

Everyone started following behind Sanguine, and I took up the rear of the formation. I quickly opened up my menu, scanning my feats and spells that Nakuma programmed this character with. Raise Dead… Drain Life, Panic… yup… necromancer. Those were her only spells? Level 5? What? When did she get to level 5? Did she start out at level 5? Oh gods… what am I doing here?

"You okay?" A Bosmer archer with long black hair walked beside me.

I tried to nod. "A little overwhelmed by all this."

"You tried to kill yourself. Why?" Wow, right to the question then?

"Ram-ku was dead. I… I wasn't thinking." Oh… I was thinking. I was thinking very clearly. You have to think a lot if you're planning on killing yourself.

"And you spared Nakuma, when you claim to hate her. You were the one that carried her to the infirmary… when killing her would have been too easy. Why?"

Another good question. I had the poison in my hands… I could have killed her. But I didn't. Maybe it was the walk to the laboratory. Maybe it was seeing her lying in a pool of her own blood, her robes ripped up, her scalp covered in blood. Maybe it was the sight of her brother lying in a heap next to her. Could have been a combination of things, but at that moment, I just didn't care about killing her. I felt sorry for her. I had to help her. I had come to the realization earlier that killing her wouldn't change anything, and might make it worse for me and Ram-ku. I had to change who I was, and then maybe he'd appreciate me more. So… I helped get her to the infirmary, where Ram-ku was waiting for me with Vistha standing over him. Best friends to the end, right? That's us. The three of us until death takes us away.

"She suffered enough by having to kill her brother." Not exactly a lie, but there had to be more to my decision. I tried to dwell on it, on why I would suddenly spare her life.

I was brought back to the game by Sanguine pausing by the door leading to the Dwemer city. "I cannot assist once inside. The magicks in this city block my Daedric Princely powers. I will just supervise and improvise if we need to."

The door opened up and Sanguine ushered us inside. The Falmer with the giant two handed sword took the lead. "I'll take position as team leader." He looked at us. "I know we can work together as a team if we focus. So… let's do this." He pointed to me. "Mannimarca, you're a necromancer, but that also means you're a healer. So am I. With exactly six people, we should break up into two teams of three. I will take team one with Samantha and J'vasti."

J'vasti sighed. "Oh gods… not her."

Samantha shrieked as she ran up to J'vasti, throwing her in a tight hug. "We're going to be the best of friends! We should totes get our nails done. Ooh, and we could…"

That girl was really starting to get on my nerves. I used my necromantic abilities to Silence her. I had a special spell Nakuma created for her character called Necromantic Grip. Basically I choke someone with my magicka. She must have prepared this spell for this situation. Seeing Samantha grab her throat like she was surprised that she couldn't speak was worth casting the spell though. She tried to scream and yell but I couldn't hear anything. Pure awesomeness.

The Falmer looked over at me. "Seeing as you're the oldest in the group, you will be leader of team 2. So, you'll be with Greinla and Neetsa. Greinla is the Bosmer archer, and Neetsa is the shadowscale." He was completely ignoring the now rampaging Samantha, trying her best to scream her head off. Might as well just keep ignoring her. I looked over at the boy, Neetsa. He looked just like the one sitting outside our game. I'm guessing he cares about as much as I do about playing this game.

I sighed as I nodded. "Ok… fine." I looked at my two teammates. "Umm…" I looked at their weapons: bows and serrated sword. And I'm magicka girl. So… "We're in the middle of the formation. So, I want Greinla in the middle with her bow and arrow, where she can cover team 1 as well as team 2. I'll be behind her, and I want Neetsa watching our rear."

Greinla nodded. "Roger."

Neetsa shrugged. "I'm fine with that."

Well, that was pretty easy. But still, this wasn't much fun. When were we going to get to all the action? Besides watching the annoyed Samantha as she tried to scream her voice back, there wasn't much going on.

We started moving through the inner hallway that led into the ancient Dwemer city. It was boring for the first few minutes. We walked around; some of our more curious members would pick stuff up, examine it, and sometimes put that stuff in their inventory. I didn't really need to pick stuff up, nor did I know what kind of stuff Nakuma would even want in her inventory anyway. So, I just walked behind the four other people in front of me while Neetsa watched my back. Nothing happened for perhaps a few minutes, just long enough for me to space out. Of course… I noticed there was something wrong though. I'm a trained assassin in real life. And this place was much too quiet. And with all the realism I've seen so far, I don't think the overwhelming silence of the place was coincidence. There was a constant fear of people watching me. Oddly, I had a sneaking suspicion that I should open up my character stats. Opening it up, I looked towards the bottom at fears. Primary fear: Paranoia. Oh… Nakuma programmed this fear into her character. Why? Who does stuff like that? Then I noticed that Paranoia gives added +3 to Sense Motive, Search, and Listen checks. Not too bad, Nakuma. I might learn to respect you after this. That's probably why I noticed just how quiet it really is throughout this place.

And… that's when I noticed it. The breathing. The irregular breathing. I had to say something; I could hear it all around us, surrounding us. I could see the tiny cracks that could be secret doors. But mentioning it to everyone would only alert our enemies, but it would be worth it if we didn't walk into a thick ambush, like I suspected we were. "Everyone, we're surrounded." I said just loud enough for everyone to hear. And that's when it happened. The walls slid open, and a horde of corprus monsters jumped out at us. I must say, the graphics in this game are very realistic. They looked like real corprus monsters. What used to look like Imperials and Dunmer were now bulbous creatures coated in ash. They lumbered like zombies, moving not too quickly, but only because their legs had irregular lumps that hindered knees' ability to bend properly.

So, since I alerted everyone, everyone was ready for the ambush we had just walked into. I let the 'Shut up Samantha' spell drop, to which she started singing a song about fighting the zombies. Looking over at Team 1, I was surprised at how quickly and efficiently J'vasti and the Falmer worked together. The Khajiit started throwing fireballs while the Falmer slashed down the corprus monsters. Whatever song Samantha was singing was only helping the two work together as a unit, I could see the song helping their timing with each other's attacks, helping their concentration. Samantha was in the middle of their little whirlwind of death.

I had to tend to my own little battle though. Corprus monsters were started to swarm my little team and we had our own little battle. Thinking fast, I had an archer… not that great in this situation. If only I had two shadowscales, or at least the one that was actually good at their job. You know… the one that socked me in the face last night. Too bad she was playing an archer. Guess it was up to me then.

I turned to Neetsa. "You're our primary close-quarters expert! Do something!"

He nodded. "Roger." He reached for two short swords and charged into the right side of the corprus. He started engaging that side of our enemies.

I turned to Greinla. "Can you shoot this close?"

She shook her head. "No, but I can do this." She reached into her belt pouches. She pulled out what looked like old cherry bombs. She rubbed the spark fuses against a metal plate on her wrist, sparking the fuses into lighting. She tossed the grenades into the open doorways, turning around and running away. Ok… I'm taking that as a sign to leave. I turned to run, and I was so glad that I did. The hallway the two of us were standing in was turning into several small explosions. One grenade splintered off into several smaller grenades, all exploding. The explosions weren't very powerful but… they don't need to be powerful against zombies. They have no defenses at all. The explosions blew holes in their legs, their arms, their heads. The corprus monsters in the hallway were nothing but goop. Looking ahead to Team 1, I could see that they handled their little party of corprus as well.

As soon as we dealt with that little thing, Sanguine went back to leading us through the Dwemer ruin. And as time went by, I started feeling better about being here. I felt more relaxed about playing this character. We had a couple more small encounters, and for the smallest one, I requested that I take it on myself. So, when it came time to fight two corprus monsters, I walked up and tried to figure out just how my powers worked. I may only be playing this character for today, but I was getting curious what kind of character Nakuma would create. Of course, having Mannimarco stuck in her brain is what probably led to the creation of this thing.

So, I started with Raise Dead. I selected the spell mentally and the portal orb started to form in my hand. I launched it at the ground and the orb turned into a portal. A large portal opened up and out came what looked like me… me. Yes… I watched as a zombiefied version of me crawled out of the portal. She was bowing to me like a maid would, except she wasn't wearing a maid's dress but shadowscale armor. Nakuma… we're having words after I'm done with this. She really turned me into her personal zombie? That bitch!

"Yes, master?" The zombie me asked.

I pointed to the corprus. "Keep one of them busy while I kill the other." Man, it felt surreal to order myself around like this.

She looked at me with skeptical eyes. I knew that look. She had a better idea and she really wanted to share it. "You plan on fighting? Necromancers don't usually fight unless it's as secondary support. What kind of idiot are you anyway?" And there it is… talking back to me.

"Don't talk back to me, bitch!" I screamed to my zombie self. Jeez… the zombie me is a bitch… huh… I'm not even going to think about how fucked it that is. I shook my head, waving her off. "Just… go do what you do. I'll try to figure this out."

"You have another spell on you, Drain Life. The way you can help is by using it to drain the life out of the corprus while I kill it. You can spread the energy gained from it to me, power my life while I kill the thing." The zombie me said as she reached for the same daggers I used to cut into Nakuma. Ouch… this is what she thought of me now. The zombie me moved like a shadow. She charged up to both corprus monsters. With quick motions of her daggers, she passed through the corprus like it was nothing. It was like watching me fight, honestly. She spun past the two corprus monsters and then… she ended up behind them standing there proudly. The corprus monsters fell to pieces, dying before they even hit the ground. Impressive. I had to apologize to Nakuma whenever she woke up. She did a good job on my character. I wonder who else she had… probably Ram-ku. Ugh… I shouldn't start thinking of that yet. Still too fresh in my mind.

After I dealt with the small two corprus monsters, or rather the zombie me, Sanguine led us the rest of the way down to the inner chamber. It was a quiet walk for the rest of the way. The zombie me followed behind me, joining with Neetsa in our back defense. With the zombie me out and watching stuff, I felt my paranoia ease up a little. Perhaps my paranoia stats increase was decreased when Mannimarca had her personal protection out and watching her back? I don't really know.

We came to a pause as Sanguine stopped at a giant door. "Behind this door is our enemy. Prepare yourselves."

The Falmer guy looked back at me. "I want you in the center, using your Drain Life on our opponent. Drain his power and feed it to us as energy. And if you can, use that Silence Spell you used on Samantha earlier."

Samantha looked over at me, shocked. "You used that on me?" She scoffed and looked away from me. "Whatever. It's not like I even care. Not like at all. Totes not cool, bra."

The Falmer opened up the door and the rest of us charged into the chamber. Standing near an altar stood a lich-like Dunmer wearing some dark brown robes. He was wearing a giant mask made out modeled after a cliff racer head. It looked freaky. When the Dunmer guy noticed us, he stepped out from behind the altar. "It's too late. House Dagoth Ur will rise again! When the barrier falls, the enforcers of Dagoth Ur's legacy will rise and destroy the false pretenders… the Tribunal."

What the heck? Was this the history of Morrowind Crisis? Wow, I never got to learn this stuff. This might be fun after all.

I looked over at my zombie me. I nodded to me, saying, "Ok, you go finish this up quickly."

She nodded. "Of course. Now that you have seen my glory, you can't wait to use me?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."

She scowled. "No one uses me. I do what I want." Yup… a bitch.

And bitchy me took off towards the corprus commander. I casted my Necromantic Grip on the corprus commander but it fizzled once I casted it. I tried again but it fizzled out a second time. The room exploded into a mass of summoning portals, giant flesh atronachs climbing out to engage us. I didn't have time to try casting it again. I drew my knife and started running for the middle of the room.

"My Silence isn't working on him!" I screamed to my team.

"We know!" Samantha screamed as she pulled out a small thin sword, a rapier I think. She started singing a special tune that seemed to fill us with combative prowess, again. "You can't feel the heat until hold your hand over the flame… you have to cross the line just to remember where it lays…" Man... that sounded like a good song. I might enjoy this after all. I actually might start liking her.

I charged the first line of corprus monster charging me. I slashed with my dagger. I practically bounced off it soft flesh and my dagger stabbed me in the arm. What the hell? How did that happen? I'm a fucking assassin! I don't make mistakes like that.

"You rolled a one." A voice said in the back of my head. It sounded like Nakuma. What? When did she appear in here? "I'm watching you guys play. Ram-ku's awake too. He says hi."

I looked back to the corprus monster. He was starting to attack me. As soon as he slashed at me, his arm fell to pieces. The zombie me was charging in, slashing his arm off. "Do not worry, master. I will protect you."

"Thank you, zombie me." I called to the zombie me.

Zombie me smirked. "Actually… it's Nakuma." She stuck her tongue out at me. "As soon as you summoned her, I just implanted myself into her persona. So… you're playing me, and I'm playing you. So much fun." This was so fucked up.

I shook my head. "Ok, whatever. But if we're going to play this for now on… I'm playing me, you're playing you."

She nodded. "Of course… master." She bowed to me mockingly. Oh… she has the gall to do that with my body? Whatever. I'll get her back for this.

I looked to the corprus commander. "So, Nakuma."

"Nu-uh." She shook her head. "I do believe my name is 'My personal bitch Meesei the Super Maid of Bitchiness. Say my full name, if you will."

I sighed, rubbing my temples. "My personal bitch Meesei the Super Maid of Bitchiness… please go kill the corprus guy controlling all these flesh atronachs. Killing him will make them vanish and then we can end this campaign."

She bowed to me once again. "At once, Mannimarco, Mistress of all things." She took off in a flash. I'm guessing the rule of rolling dice was ignored for her. She passed right through the guy, taking off his head in one slash. When her flash ended, she was still holding onto his head, presenting it pleasantly like it was a gift to us all. "I have done as you have asked, master. Do you wish to punish me now?"

"Fuck you, my personal bitch Meesei Maid of Bitchiness." Gods, this sounded so wrong to every level in every way… I just can't wait until we're done for the day.

Everything just stopped. The flesh atronachs all fell to pieces, and everyone stood there waiting for more things to happen. Nothing did. Sanguine nodded in appreciation as he walked over to the altar. He looked around for a second before pulling up what looked like a rounded crystal. "This is what we need to power the Ghostgate. This should help restore the barrier to full strength and give us the time we need to crush House Dagoth Ur once and for all."

Cearbhail:

So, next chapter will deal with Vatu, and Erandur as well. Their quests. and now... my reveal. I now introduce Ruins & Dwarves Online. Here's the short version of the description as well as a teaser of the first chapter.

...

You know... there are rumors of people dying in this game. People not waking up after putting on their virtual illuminator headsets. Rumors of a little girl running around lost in the virtual world. My friend is engrosed in playing this game. I cannot let her do it alone. So... I will do what i must and i will get myself a headset. I will plug myself into the game and help my friend any way I can. My gamertag is Cmotti45 and I have a mission. And once I find out what's going on with this game... I will beat the crap out of it and then shut it down once and for all.

...

Welcome to Ruins & Dwarves Online!

That's what the screen floating in front of me said. Ruins & Dwarves Online, huh? I should have guessed this game would open up with something like that. With the rumors of a girl losing her consciousness in this game and becoming nothing more than a shell of a person out here in the real world, a lot of people were turned off from playing this game. A lot of people believed the rumors, and a lot of people thought it wasn't worth the risk of playing this game. But… I don't believe rumors, but I do love a challenge. And if there is a risk of people dying in this game, I need to find out for myself. And if it were not for my friend in school, I wouldn't even bother with this game. She was afraid to enter it alone, I'm just here to support her through her missions.

I pushed the illusionary enter button. Man… we have some awesome gaming equipment nowadays. My parents had to use a spell that created an illusionary experience… with dice and stuff. Pfff!

Before we begin, we have a special message from Ruins & Dwarves Online Company President Sugihara Shimigoto.

Wow, the company president? That's something. I knew about him; he was a strong Dwemer man adopted by an Akavir family, famous in the new illusionary gaming company Imagination Illumination Corporation. And here he was, appearing in front of me, floating in the little white space I occupied. "Thank you for purchasing and supporting Ruins & Dwarves Online. Now, before you create your character and sign in, I would like to take this time to answer a few of the obvious questions that may be floating around in your brain. First off, I would like to dismiss the claims of a little girl losing her mind to an improper link session with her virtual illuminator headset. This girl running around the game, claiming to be lost in the game, is a glitch in the system: she is nothing but code. However, she is code that we cannot delete for obvious reasons, and she has adopted the background story of a simple girl getting lost in the game. The obvious reason being that this code supports a massive structure within the game. She is part of the main quest, and because she helps the players with their quests, she had to adapt a personality of someone they could relate to. As for the glitch part, she can only be completely restored to her default setting upon winning the main campaign in Ruins & Dwarves Online. No one has survived the last mission, and it's all or naught. Up until that point, you could restore and resume your quests… but once you enter the final dungeon, your account becomes gambled. Lose… and you lose everything to us."