The Reviews
RedtheBattler
The Dragons won't attack the College as the Dragonborn has already dealt with the more aggressive ones and killed the as well World-Eater.
I don't recall any Vampires attacking people is that in the expansion packs?
None of the Outcasts drink so that wouldn't work and besides as you will read at the end of this chapter the Princes have stuff of their own to deal with plans in motion and all that. Still maybe Uncle Sanguine could drop a little present for Luna and give her some encouragement about romance with Damien.
But the wedding idea won't work Damien and Luna don't want to get married yet as there not even kissing at this point.
Would be a fun wedding me thinks. Maybe I'll put it in Book Two.
Way ahead of you on the idea of using restoration magic to fix Neville's parents.
Lootryx
I'm still not much of an anime fan so its unlikely.
Selias
Damien will met other versions of himself although I don't why they would be unfriendly towards him unless they were forced into a fight. Of course given the way the Many World Theory works its not impossible that there is a version of Gothic out there who would attack Damien on sight simply because there's bound to be a version of me out there with god like power who is also totally nuts. But that would make for a very short chapter.
A W
The Necromancer version of Gothic did just want the mask and he figured that Damien was going to stop the Eye Of Magnus from going boom or whatever so it was a good idea to let him take the Staff since Necromancer Gothic does live in Skyrim he doesn't want it to be destroyed.
Also I don't think the Mask would do Damien much good if you recall the fight with the Spiders a few chapters back Damien has more magic than his body can safely handle he passed due to fatigue not loss of magic so the Mask would do nothing for him.
As for the Staff well Necromancer Gothic is mostly fighting Nords and they like to hit people with axes so a magic draining staff wouldn't be so useful.
And there is also the fact that Necromancer Gothic remembers what a Wizard with a wand can do to the undead. Dumbledore destroyed loads of zombies in the Half Blood Prince book while still recovering from a very nasty potion so the Necromancer would be wandering if Damien could do that to and just reduce all his zombies to ash in a matter of moments.
Lord Edric
In the next chapter we head back to the Wizarding World.
douchiesnacks
I already explained the reasoning for that to A W.
Chinran
I might write Necromancer Gothic if there's enough demand but I have a lot of story ideas so it would take more people requesting to read Necromancer Gothic to make it worth my time.
War sage
I just said I have a lot of stories so unless there is a lot of demand it might be a while before I write Time Lord Gothic.
The First Gothic. Book One. A Wizard In Training. Part 20.
The Midden. The College Of Winterhold. Skyrim.
I actually felt sorry for the Frostbite Spider that my group encountered in The Midden. Upon seeing the overgrown arachnid the Outcasts had obliterated it using a mixture of Skyrim and Wizarding World magic, what was left of the giant spider would have be scrapped off the walls.
Granted my friends and I had very good reasons for not liking spiders but still living things don't deserve to be reduced to paste just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But I'd quickly put the gruesome death out of my mind once we had started to explore The Midden.
I'd soon discovered that the College was a lot bigger in real life that it was in the game. The Midden was also much larger than the game suggested which meant that there were also a lot more creatures running around down here.
Thankfully the few skeletons and zombies (leftovers from someone's Necromancy experiments no doubt) were easily dealt with and I blasted the sole Ice Wraith before it could ruin anyone's day.
"There's some really weird stuff down here" commented Neville as he and Ginny started to examine what I knew to be Daedric Relic.
"Just grab what you can" I told the Longbottom heir "I want to take as much as we can back with us".
It was possible for me to return to Skyrim when ever I wished thanks to the Portal Spell but I had no intention of coming back here unless I really had to as that Necromancer version of myself had really freaked me out.
"Is your trunk going to be big enough?" asked Ginny.
"Sure I upgraded before we left" I told the red head "I got the chest with seven compartments and all the optional extras".
It was a very cool trunk you could easily live out of it, in fact if you had a sleeping bag and didn't mind enclosed spaces you could even live in it. Although why anyone would want to was beyond me.
I'd gone as far as to buy all the extras you could get with that kind of trunk so I had space not only to store all of my personal possessions (which once you took away the school stuff was depressingly little really) I could also store everything that we were planning to take home with us and still have room to spare.
"Nev make sure you grab all the alchemy stuff you can" I reminded my friend "there's some cool ingredients down here".
Ginny and Neville left me with the Daedric Relic to go and gather the plants which were well worth gathering due to their magical properties. They were of great interest to Neville due to his love of exotic green things and he'd picked up quite a lot of seeds and cuttings so that he could grow some of these plants back home. He had a few spare greenhouses so it wasn't as if his efforts would go to waste and the rare magical properties the of the plants native to this would allow me to create potions no one else had access to back in the Wizarding World.
Unknown to Nev I intended to slip his parents a few of the potions I had already made in the hopes that my potions would restore their minds. I didn't know if a restore intelligence potion would do anything but it was worth trying as given the state Mr and Mrs Longbottom were in even killing them would be a improvement.
As a back up plan I'd bartered quite a bit of Gringotts gold to buy scrolls of restoration magic. I didn't have the skill needed to cast the spells myself but a scroll didn't require the user to be that skilled as it was the scroll that contained the magic.
I'd even considered the idea of kidnapping the two Longbottoms and bringing them to one of the shrines of the Nine Divines as those shrines had the power to lift Dark Curses and the Longbottoms were suffering because of Dark Curses so if all else failed I'd have to but my faith in some gods.
Which wasn't something I wanted to do as I didn't want to be in debt to some gods nor did I wish to return to Skyrim but it was worth it for Neville.
It was tempting to point out to Nev that the magic here might help his parents but it would be cruel to give him hope only to have it snatched away again if my plans failed. No it was better to let him know what I'd done only if it worked so if my plans failed he'd never know.
I hadn't even mention any of this to Luna as I was a little worried that she might try and fix her own mind using the magic here. It was selfish of me but I liked the Luna I knew and if she changed I might lose her.
Then again she must know that she wasn't altogether in the head. The restore intelligence potion wouldn't help but her Seer powers (which were what made her insane by most people's standards) were a curse (or a gift in my view as it aided me) so if she fixed herself that curse would be gone. If it was just me who would lose out I'd cure her myself but a lot of lives were depending on what I did in the next few years.
"Its okay I don't want to be fixed".
I'd been so involved in my own thoughts that I hadn't even noticed that Luna was standing right behind me.
"Would it work?" I asked her.
My girlfriend nodded and said.
"Its a curse so it can be lifted, any of the temples here could do it but I don't want to lose what makes me special and you need my help".
That was Luna for you, always she thought of others before herself.
"Your plan to heal Neville's parents will work as well but no one must know it was you".
"I don't want to lie to Neville" I told the blond girl.
Well it wouldn't actually be lying but withholding the truth was just as bad sometimes. That was the sort of thing the likes of Dumbledore did and it one of the many reasons why I hated the old man.
Luna's hand gripped mine in order to comfort me.
"He'll figure it out" she assured me "but you don't need to win his loyalty he trusts you to do what's right".
I should know that, but I still had those nagging doubts about myself and what I had to do.
"And he has the sword to prove it".
My confused look asked the question for me.
"Neville's still got the sword. I think it likes him".
Godric's blade was suppose to go those of his house that needed it but Luna made it sound like the weapon had chosen Neville to wield it. I remembered reading that some magical swords could do that and they would still stay loyal to the wielder as long as they used the sword for its intended purpose.
What that purpose was I didn't know but that sword wasn't meant for the likes of me it was meant for Wizards like Neville so perhaps I wasn't meant to know. Plus I could conjure up my own sword now thanks to the Bound Sword Spell so it wasn't as if I had a great need for such a weapon.
"I'll get the sword imbued with venom when we get back" I said to Luna.
The Traveller had given me some Basilisk venom as a gift sometime ago and it was best to imbue the sword with the venom just in case Neville needed to kill Riddle's snake like he would have done in the original time line.
Not the Horcruxs worried me any more as if the Staff Of Magnus worked as I hoped it did I could strip Riddle of his powers anyway. I wasn't sure that would happen if I took away his magic but I doubted his spirit would be a danger to anyone with any magical powers.
The Staff might not kill the current Dark Lord, given that he was immortal, but if he become a powerless disembodied creature who could only haunt the world till the end of time, well that would suit me fine.
And even it didn't I learned how to remove souls from people and objects while recovering Azura's Star. I'd turned it into a reusable Black Soul Gem which could store human souls something which could benefit me later.
Forcing human souls out of the body they belonged in was rather tricky to do without killing the person but Riddle's soul was more damaged than mine was and he currently lacked a body in any case. So if I ever faced Riddle I'd cast the Soul Trap Spell and capture the part of his soul that was the main piece then I'd open a portal to some empty world devoid of people and then leave the Black Star there.
Since the Star was now cut off from its creator it wouldn't fade back into Oblivion and the Star itself was difficult to damage so Riddle might spend forever trapped in the Soul Gem on a world completely devoid of human life. Another fitting for the so called Dark Lord.
It would be tempting to enchant him out of the Star and then let him spend eternity in the Soul Carin but he might escape and Nirn (the world Elder Scrolls is set in) didn't deserve to have the likes of Voldemort inflicted upon it.
But either way Flight From Death would have the immortal existence he so desired just not in the way he desired. The idea made me very, very happy.
"Could I borrow your god gem?" Luna asked out of the blue
She meant the Star I assumed. It was the only thing I had from a god that was a gem of sorts.
"Sure" I replied "its in my trunk".
Luna was learning the art of enchanting so a reusable Soul Gem would be very handy for her. She wasn't lacking for souls either as objects turned into animals could be soul trapped (something that confused the hell out of me) so Luna would be spending some time putting weak enchantments on all my clothes if my guess was right. I wouldn't complain as it was a good way to practice that skill and all the Outcasts would benefit greatly once Luna could enchant all our clothes and jewellery.
"You should spend some time with Ginny" advised Luna rather out of the blue as she moved in to get a hug from me.
"What, why?" I asked.
"Your not going to be able to take over the world without her help" informed Luna.
"The world is not enough" I muttered mostly to myself.
"Well you know how to get to other worlds now" reminded Luna with a silly grin on her face"anyway Ginny is the key to getting the Chosen One on our side".
I quickly went over what I knew and I imagined that if Potter entered the Tri-Wizard tournament he might turn to someone like Ginny for help as she was a Weasly after all. I'd suspected that he end up getting closer to Neville but it seemed as if Luna had seen otherwise.
"Ginny doesn't think that you need her as much as Neville and me" Luna told me "if you take her on a mission she'll feel more needed".
I was almost corrected her by pointing out that it was 'Neville and I' not 'Neville and me' but doing that sort of thing just tended to annoy people.
"She's your friend" I replied "so I'll trust your judgement. I'm sure there's something she and I can do together. There's bound to be somewhere we can go to get more magical supplies".
The Marketplace. Solitude. Skyrim.
When had Luna suggested that Ginny and I do something together she mentioned going on a mission but I decided against that due to the fact that I didn't know how well Ginny would deal with killing living people nor did I know how well she could fight with the rest of the Outcasts being with us.
So I had offered Ginny the chance to explore somewhere a bit safer somehow that had turned into a shopping trip which given that we were trying to find magical items to take back home with us wasn't such a bad idea but still that hadn't been the kind of adventure I'd had in mind.
Damien Mason And The Trip To Buy Souvenirs.
It just didn't sound right. Potter really does have all the fun.
"Come on" urged the red headed girl "I need to buy something for my Mum and Dad".
The Traveller had some way of making everyone think that the Outcasts had won a trip to visit the magical community in another part of the world we'd left. I had no idea how he was able to do that because our cover story wouldn't hold up to any sort of investigation but everyone seemed to accept the story regardless of how little sense it made.
Still it was best to play along with the story and that meant that we had return home with arms full of the usual rubbish tourists got suckered into buying when visiting parts of the world they didn't know well enough to avoid being ripped off. Well at least that was Ginny's plan it may be just an excuse to go shopping.
So it seemed that I was just along for the ride. Well that I was funding this fun afternoon out. Not that I minded of course as I had more money than a person could spend in one lifetime (even a Wizard's lifetime) so as long as she didn't buy a house here I would be no worse off financially.
Coming from a not so wealthy family Ginny didn't like it when I spent money on her but I'd managed to convince her that the money didn't matter between friends as when it came to gifts you weren't meant to keep track of who spent how much on who.
Judging by the fact that she'd stopped mentioning money she must of swallowed her pride and realised that I was going to spend money on her anyway so she might as well stop worrying about it.
As for what we were spending the money on well the shops were actually rather reasonable priced which was odd even that the storekeepers should be trying to fleece of us of all our gold. Either enhanced charisma equalled a high speechcraft skill here or my gold was worth a lot more than it seemed. That or I was getting really good at haggling business.
"Oh please somebody help me".
I turned my head to see who was asking for help and a smile lit up my face. If I remembered right the person asking for help was the servant of the Mad God (although he didn't look it) if I answered his request for aid then I could get my hands of the Wabberjack. I could have lots of fun with that staff.
"I'll help" I told the crazy wandering man while signalling Ginny over "What do you need my friend?"
The Recreation Of Pelagius' Mind
With a swirl of blue light a man wearing oddly out of style black clothing appeared walked over to where The Daedric Prince Of Madness, aka Sheogorath, was sitting sat down and he put his steel toe capped boots on the table. Which was rather rude but Sheogorath didn't mind.
"Did everything go according to plan?" asked the man wearing 21st century clothing.
"Oh aye those two Mages played the game well" replied the Mad God "but I don't understand why you wanted me to put them through the ringer. I could of just given them the Wabberjack. It wasn't easy to set this all up I can tell ya".
The man took out a cigarette and lit it by clicking his fingers.
"Give me some credit Sheegy the other me wouldn't take your artefact back to the Wizarding World if he suspected a set up and we do need our artefacts spread about if we want to expand our influences".
The Mad God huffed.
"If ya did something about that Necromancer version of yourself running around causing all sorts of trouble then we wouldn't have to worry about bringing down the barriers".
The Daedric Prince version of Gothic simply smiled at his peer.
"You know that's not how this all works. The Traveller likes his amusements and the Nine Divines have struck a deal. The death loving version of myself will be driven off this world if it looks like he's getting too powerful, but for now we'll let him do his thing. Besides we can always make him the Daedric Prince of Death if he decides to try and obtain godhood".
"No offence meant my dear boy" said the Mad God "but I think having one of you running a realm of Oblivion is bad enough. If there were two of ya I'd never get any peace and quiet".
The Daedric Prince of Darkness. Poured himself a cup of tea as his insane partner in crime mentioned something about the other version of Gothic he'd just met.
"You know lad that this Mage you person type thing asked me the very same questions that you did when we first met".
"I'm not surprised" replied Prince Gothic "we are pretty much the same person after all. Did you tell him the truth?"
The Mad God laughed.
"I gave him the same answers I gave you!"
The Daedric Prince Of Darkness shook his head is dismay.
"That doesn't answer my question".
Rather than answer the unanswered questioned Sheogorath switched subjects and asked a question of his own.
"So do think that I will be able to start influencing the mortals on the world were my staff is going".
"I think so" replied the Prince of Darkness "but please do stick with the non-magic users. You shan't run short of playthings they have entire buildings full of insane people on that world whose souls you can claim. The other Princes are more interested in shall we say less developed worlds so you have what's called the Muggle World to yourself. But we will leave the Wizarding World to my younger self as if he is truly as like me as I think he is then he will already have plans to rule the magical world".
"Explain to me why you aren't the Prince Of Ambition" requested the Prince Of Madness with a chuckle.
"That's Vile area of expertise" answered the tea drinking god "beside I have enough to do with the spheres of Necromancy, Forbidden Practices and the Dark Arts as well as a bunch other spheres of influence that all add to me playing patron to every Mage who messes with things he or she shouldn't. The sheer amount of tentacle monsters I've dealt across the universes would boggle even your mind".
"At least you've got your harem to help you relax" reminded Sheggy "all I've got is Haskill and being nagged in a very soft tone of voice is still nagging".
"I think all the versions of me get into the habit of collecting girls from fiction. I haven't the desire to collect so many of something since those blasted Pokemon cards first came out. Thank Talos I stopped before they jacked up the price too much. If they ever combine Pokemon and attractive girls I'll be bankrupt before the end of the month".
In another impressive display of magic the Daedric Prince Sanguine, Lord of Revelry appeared and took a seat across from Gothic.
"You'll be happy to know that your old Uncle Sanguine played his part very well".
The demonic looking Prince took a seat and explained further.
"I had a little chat with your Wizard counterparts pet Seer I kept her nice and distracted for you".
"You didn't get her drunk did you?" asked the Prince Of Darkness with concern.
"Oh even I'm not going to try and get a child drunk, Deus. Give me some credit" replied the Prince Of Partying "No we just had a chat about her love life and we had some cake".
"The cake is a lie!" shouted Sheegy
"I never should of gotten him that TV" Deus muttered before addressing Sanguine "were these... baked goods the special brownies I taught you how to make?".
"Perhaps" answered Uncle Sanguine "but don't judge it takes a lot to block a Seer's vision and while the disbeliever in cake here".
"The cake is a lie!" interrupted the Mad God.
"could stop her from foreseeing that her boyfriend got the Wabberjack he couldn't stop her from seeing him taking the Wabberjack back home with him. By the time she recovers they will be back on their world and it will be to late to do anything about it. Besides I slipped my Staff into her trunk just like you asked me to. She'll know what is does and the temptation to use to save her boyfriend will ensure that the barriers between Oblivion and the rest of all existence are further weakened".
The Prince Of Darkness smiled a very evil smile but somehow resisted the urge to break out into typical evil villain laughter.
"Good then you too will be able to start gathering a few followers on that world. Just remember to stay away from the magic using humans of that world. This other version of myself will get involved if we start messing with the Wizards and given what he knows he might actually be able do something that could harm us".
"But he's just a mortal" argued Uncle Sanguine "what could he possible do to us?"
"Don't underestimate mortals" reminded Deus "Asura did and now she's lost her Star".
Rather suddenly the Mad God got up and declared that he was leaving muttering something about the cheeses conspiring against him.
Since it was the ruler of the Shivering Isle who had created this place it wouldn't last long once he was gone so that meant it was time for everyone to leave.
The Daedric Prince of Darkness clicked his fingers and vanished he a lot of had work to do only it didn't involve cheese, well not unless he wanted a snack.