This is some gameplay fiction courtesy of Enderal: Forgotten Stories -- a standalone game modded from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
You can find it at the Steam Store HERE for free if you have a legitimate copy of the original Oldrim-Skyrim. It's also so much better than Skyrim and I highly recommend you give it a try!!
Before I begin today's Enderal story, I'd like to encourage you to check out:
Vengeance - Chapter One and Preorder Info
This is the first book of a series that has been in my heart and mind since I was 10-11years old and I'm so excited to finally be sharing it with everyone in its entirety. Please give Chapter One a read and if you enjoy it please consider laying down a pre-order. Thank you so much! ❤️
If you have Kindle Unlimited and fancy some in-your-face politically INcorrect Australian humour, you can also read Half Past the Moonfall for free.
In the last Enderal post Kaelyra tried to nab free food from a campsite but instead fainted from an overuse of magic, then narrowly avoided being murdered by bandits. A man named Jespar saved her and solicited her help to discover something about some strange murders, but he had no food either so she went on an adventure. After being near-mauled by a pack of living skeletons she decided to crawl back to Jespar and offer her assistance, hoping that when it was over she could visit the tavern and finally get a feed. And an ale.
Onward! 😁
Leaving Jespar's camp to its rainy fate, Kaelyra stumbled through the drizzle and muttered vague obscenities beneath her breath. Mostly about how dare Jespar leave her with a cloth wrapped three times around her face. How hadn't she woken up? Using these new magical abilities really took it out of her.
Peering at the map and instructions, she followed the path and at last came upon a crossroads.
Riverville. That was where Jespar wanted her to go.
Rolling her eyes, she followed the Riverville arrow, wiped rivulets of water from her cheeks, then stumbled over her own feet as a corpse manifested in front of her.
There was no blood. She narrowed her eyes. And it was breathing. Okay, it wasn't a corpse.
Creeping closer, the woman leapt to her feet and shrieked, "Hi! I'm not dead! I was sleeping! Umm. THEY STOLE MY PRECIOUS! Help me save my precious from the evil monster!"
"Who's your precious?"
"MY PRECIOUSSSS!" the woman yelled before collapsing to her knees with a vicious sob. "She's in the ruins up the hill. Please."
"In the ruins, you say? Well, it'll get me out of this damned rain. Sure! I'll help."
Desperate to get out of the rain, Kaelyra ran up the path, slipping and sliding over the slippery rocks as she ascended to where the ruins lay.
A statue of a woman sat before her, the only 'whole' relic in the ruin, and it was holding a candle unaffected by the never-ending drizzle.
"Peculiar," Kaelyra muttered, sweeping her eyes around the debris.
It was silent. There were no monsters growling and more importantly there were no Precious's crying. Maybe the sleeping woman was insane.
A beast leapt out her!
Instinctively brandishing her newfound fire, its fur sizzled and it screamed in both anger and horror as its skin melted from its bones.
Footsteps behind her.
She spun around and whipped out her sword, but it was only the insane woman.
"What the hell was that?" Kaelyra screeched.
"A vatyr," the woman said calmly, unlatching a cage hidden beneath a pile of hay. "Awww, my precious. You're still here. Mummy's never letting you go again!"
"I, uh... risked my life for a hamster?"
"Thank you, dear. I'm a merchant by the way, whatever can I reward you with?"
"OH MY GOODNESS DO YOU HAVE FOOD?"
Munching down on fresh stew, roasted rabbit, baked potatoes and a large chunk of cheese, Kaelyra's stomach was at last satisfied.
"If your Precious ever needs rescuing again, you can call on me any time," she smiled, patting her stomach.
The woman looked through her empty food inventory and grunted, clearly unimpressed.
Kaelyra didn't care. With her stomach at last happy, with the rain gone, and with a skip in her step, she whipped out the map and followed it further down the path until she came upon a campfire.
"I wonder if they'll let me stay the night," she wondered, waltzing right on in.
"YEARGH!" a woman screamed, brandishing a giant axe.
"YEEEARRRGHHHH!!!!" a man bellowed, brandishing an even larger axe.
Bandits. Whipping out her fiery hand, she turned them into toasted bandits then took over their camp.
After an uneventful sleep, with no dreams for a change, Kaelyra awoke to a lovely sun-shining morning.
"Ahhhh," she sighed, stretching her arms over her head.
"YEARRRRRRGH!" a man bellowed, brandishing a giant mace.
"Holy crap!" Kaelyra screeched, completely unprepared for such an event first thing in the morning.
Instead of whipping out her magical hand, fire breathed from her mouth like a dragon as she screeched at the brazen bandit.
Once he at last lay dead on the path, burnt to a crisp, Kaelyra hurriedly looked around and searched for more bandits. First there were the ones at the camp, now the ones here, a mere few metres away from said camp. There had to be more. She would not be caught unaware, again.
Investigating the entire area, she came across a cave hidden beneath a waterfall. Inside were several boats, hundreds upon thousands of wooden barrels, crates, and chests, and chortling voices.
More bandits.
Taking a deep breath, Kaelyra prepared her fiery wrath.
There were only three bandits. They were dispatched with ease, hell, they didn't even know she and her bow were in there. There were more crates and chests piled high in the back of the cave.
There was nothing in any of them.
Not even a rotting potato.
She entered the one enclosed house-like structure inside the cave and ploughed into the leader of the bandits.
"Who the fuck are you?" he yelled.
"Uh," there was no time to answer, she whipped out her sword and started flailing like a mad woman. He had a strange mace that seemed to suck the very life out of her. Groaning, she unleashed one last burst of fire. The bandit leader died, and she collapsed to the floor and had a nap.
When she awoke she remembered the man's strange mace and took it for herself. That could come in handy.
With new health-stealing mace in hand and a confident swagger to her step, Kaelyra explored more of the region, completely forgetting about the giant cloth map tucked into her satchel, and came across the most picturesque glade she had ever seen.
"Oh my goodness, isn't this just delightful!" she giggled, bathing beneath the waterfall, ignoring yet another campfire abandoned beside it.
After several hours beneath the waterfall, indulging in her blissful day, Kaelyra at last emerged from the watery shower and took a glance around the area.
There was a cave at the top of the path, surrounded by mushrooms and a weird chemical smell.
Curious, she crept inside.
A bunch of mushroom-addled maniacs ran at her, wailing and moaning as they clawed at her face.
"Humannnn," they hissed. "Flessshhhhh. Our mushrooms will grow wonderfully on you, ehehhehee!"
"I don't think so!" cried Kaelyra, extricating her sword and chopping at grasping hands and heads that belonged to gnashing teeth. She didn't dare summon her fire. Not here. Not with that chemical smell. The whole place would erupt in flames, surely!
Once the last maniac lay dead, Kaelyra took the moment to admire the cave.
So many mushrooms. How many people had those maniacs killed to grow this many mushrooms? She shuddered and ran away before the mushrooms could overwhelm her like they had those people.
Exiting the cave, she fell into the abandoned camp and slept for an entire day and night.
When she awoke, she remembered what she was supposed to be doing, rolled her eyes, and looked at Jespar's cloth map again.
Oh. That was convenient. The first X on the map was nearby.
"Yero the Murderer threw a lockbox into the sea. Doubt it's moved far. Look around here."
Swimming away from the island and back towards the mainland, the lockbox was like a gleaming beacon that guided her back to shore.
"Well, that was easy," she muttered, retrieving some waterlogged journals and a key out of the chest.
"Yero's childhood friend lives in Riverville. Get information out of him. Chat or torture, your choice."
"Huh," Kaelyra raised an eyebrow. "Jespar's a little more... devious than I imagined. Interesting."
Following a river, she soon arrived at the aptly named Riverville. It was nice to see civilisation after all these days! How long had it been now since she'd been pushed off a ship? Too long. Maybe she could finally sleep in a nice, warm tavern...
Following the winding path up through the village, she soon came across a rickety old man.
"Hey, you! With the arrow above your head!" she gestured wildly. "I need to ask you some questions!"
"This is about Yero, isn't it?" he croaked, painfully slowly.
"Yes."
"Come, sit with me on the bench... this is going to take a while."
Evidently, she grimaced. It took him a full minute to heave that one sentence out of his throat. Resigned, she sat on the bench. No wonder Jespar had tasked her with this. Maybe torture wasn't so bad of an option.
After suffering through the old man's dronings for hours upon hours, the sun began to set and Kaelyra had no new information. The old man was useless.
Politely taking her leave and falsely thanking him for his useless information, she navigated her way around Riverville and stumbled upon the tavern.
Pushing open the doors with a great shove, she yelled at the top of her voice, "ALE! AND A BED."
Then, after pounding down pint after pint, Kaelyra proceeded to fleece all the taverngoers of their coin before passing out over the table in a drunken stupor.
Until next time,
Thanks for stopping by! 🙃