I'm not one for catchy introductions so I'll just explain the situation. Cyrodiil is in distress following the assassination of emperor Uriel Septim and all of his known heirs. It is rumored that portals to the many planes of Oblivion have sprung up in select places all over Tamriel. People were beginning to lose hope when, out of the confusion, a hero appears. However, this hero is too busy fighting for the empire to hear the whispers of a mysterious mage who happens to welcome the Oblivion invasion. He sees it as the ultimate challenge, not only if his skill as a wizard and necromancer, but also of his skill as a leader and a strategist. Therefor he has made it his mission to prepare for and to thwart the chosen one. To begin his great quest the necromancer must have the right materials. His first order of business will be a journey to Echo Cave and a small visit to none other than the King of Worms himself, Mannimarco. Ladies and gentlemen, the Tale of Axl Lynch.

Author's Notes: I'll begin the story in a few, gonna grab a bite to eat.

"Damn it, Axl, why are we still here? I thought we had a plan." These words came from the mouth of a tall, slender Altmer male clothed in a black necromancer's robe with a fine steel longsword sheathed on his left side.

"I am fully aware that your mind is nowhere near as comprehensive as mine so it would be best if I put it into a slightly less intelligent form of wording. We aren't ready yet." Axl sat on a small wooden stool in front of a blazing fire. He looked very similar to his brother being but an inch or two shorter with slightly longer hair and a bit more handsome. He wore the same robe as his brother while weilding a long wooden staff instead of a sword.

"How could we possibly be be more prepared than we are now?"

"All right, brother, listen. The cave to which we are heading is filled to the brim with the most powerful necromancers Tamriel has to offer. Therefor, we both must be in a state of complete and total adrenal rage. In other words, we must starve ourselves of blood so we're strong." As he said this, Axl bared his teeth revealing abnormally large canines.

"It's torture, brother. I don't think I can do it."

"You can...and you will. You must, for if you do not there will be no great war. One more day, Seth. We leave at nine o'clock tomorrow night. We must reach Echo Cave before daybreak or we will be most uncomfortable."


Notes: It's a small piece but I'm still developing the story in my head at the moment. I need some time to think.

Intriging so far. Your idea is a fresh one as well, necromancers (possibly vampiric ones it seems) haven't been written about much. Maybe we'll learn that the necromancer is a misunderstood practioner of the conjurative arts? Or a diabolical being, totally bent of achieving lichdome. Only time will tell. I will be waiting.

Welcome to the forums!

Thank you for the complement and the welcome Metal Mallet. For the moment I'm pretty much making things up as I go along, developing the story on the spot until I have a little more spare time to sit think. I'll make this next installment longer than the last.

The next night, at the exact hour of nine PM the brothers set out. They were traveling from a house in the Imperial Waterfront to Echo Cave to the north west. The trip would take nearly eight hours at a comfortable pace which left them nearly an hour to spare for whatever reason.

"It's about damn time we left. How long will the trip take?" Seth's voice had traces of frustration, relief, and last but certainly not least, hunger.

"I would most certainly hold eternal gratitude for you if you would kindly consider a ceasation(SP?) of this mindless drivle(SP?). The knowledge of our mission alone is nearly enough to drive me mad and if that's not enough I am forced to travel with the likes of you and a nearly unbearable form of hunger gnawing holes in the pits of my stomach. So please be a gentleman and shut the hole under your nose!" Axl spoke quickly and directly, clearly trying to confuse his brother into silence.

"If I hadn't been by your side for the last two hundred years I wouldn't have understood a word you just said. Wouldn't have mattered either, I'd kill a stranger for talking like that." To prove his point, Seth drew his sword and swung at a tree trunk that was nearly three feet across. As the sword made contact the tree's juices were forced out, leaving a wet line across his face. The sword cut completely through the tree so quickly that it didn't even fall. Smiling, he turned to face Axl.

"Very well." Laughing, Axl concentrated on the split tree. Using telekinesis he seperated the upper part from the trunk and sent it flying.

"Let's just go." Said Seth, casting a silence spell on Axl who spent the next five minutes mumbling undoubtedly large words of anger and frustration.

After a good three hours of uninterupted travel the brothers chanced upon an Ayleid ruin. Looking up at the sky to note the time, Axl turned to his brother.

"We're nearly an hour ahead of schedule, meaning if we continue on at this pace we'll reach our destination with two hours of night left."

"And?" asked an impatient Seth.

"And I need some Welkynd stones. You know I was born underthe sign of the Atronoch, brother. My magicka is stunted and I have only two good stones to recharge it. Without my magicka I'm forced to use this," He pulled a silver dagger from a sheathe at his ankle. "and I'm not too good with it."

"That's exactly why you should have gone down my path. Let's be quick about this. Frying just isn't my thing." At that, the two entered the ruin, desperately hoping to find the restorative Welkynd stones.

“Alright, men, get your things packed. We’re outta here in ten so get a move on. Damn it, semipermeable and elbows, let’s go!” These words came from a short, sturdy-looking imperial clad in steel with a wicked-looking claymore strapped to his back and a shortsword at his side. He was barking orders to numerous other warriors scattered throughout the halls of his latest ‘treasure trail’ as he called it. An Ayleid ruin, and a large one at that. He and his ragtag group of ex-legionnaires had managed to clear out the critters and loot the place with minimal losses.

A small Bosmer male clothed completely in black made his way through the small army of rushing soldiers and approached his captain. He spoke in a low hiss, almost like a whisper.

“Excuse me, captain Naney. We have a problem.” He hissed with a hint of arrogance.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we have a problem. I heard something, it sounded like stone grinding against stone. I think someone’s entered our stronghold.” He said with a half smile.

“Hmm, it’s unlikely but I guess I could send someone up to check it out. Ah, it looks like everyone else is busy with their belongings. I guess you’ll have to do it.” said the imperial.

“Very well. I shall return.” With that, the Bosmer was off at a silent run.

After ascending a flight of stairs and crossing a bridge he came to a halt in the middle of a hallway.

“Footsteps…” he whispers to himself.

He quietly ran back to the bridge and jumped over the side, grabbing it inches before hitting the water. He listened closely and began to hear voices.

“—staff anyway. I mean, I know it’s powerful but it’s not necessary.”

“I’m afraid you’re not quite as comprehensive as I’d like you to be. You see, the staff of worms is an ancient relic of inconceivable power. It’s widely believed to have the ability to resurrect a fallen foe to be one’s servant for thirty seconds. I, of course, know otherwi—” the man stopped abruptly.

“What is it, brother?” the other whispered. After a moment of inaudible whispers the footsteps began again. The Bosmer slowly began to lower himself into the water, inch by inch. By the time he was in up to his knees he heard a shuffle and let go of the bridge, falling into the water.

“Just zap the water!”

“Shut up! I know what to do!” the bosmer turned to look at his enemies. Two Altmer males clad in black neceromancers robes with hoods pulled over their heads. One was pulling a staff from his back. The Bosmer let out a scream as a bolt of electricity hit the water just in front of him.

Notes: I don't think this installment's written quite as well as it can be but the story needs an update so here it is.

Well I liked it, you electricuted what seemed like an annoying Bosmer. I find that stuff cool

I know what ya mean though, sometimes I get the feeling I should sacrifice some quality just to get an update up, instead I just make the post shorter. So sometimes that just leaves the update relatively well written (I don't know how good my writing is truely) but sometimes boring since it's just transitional stuff to the more interesting stuff coming later.

Sometimes things like that just have to be done, you run into roadblocks or some such stuff.

Keep it up though!

I like this one. I love how those two cxonstantly bicker amongst each other.

,,Hey, there's this dude there who wants to warn a small army. I'll hack him to pieces!"
,,No, that's too blunt and unsophisticated. I'll hit him with a spell instead."
,,Oh no, you're not going to ruin my fun. This one is mine!"
,,I'm telling you, we don't have time for that time consuming hacking of yours. A spell is quick, clean and it works!"
,,Yeah, and you run out of Magicka at the worst moment! At least a sword never runs out of power!"
,,But swords break.........He got away while we were arguing. Now look what you did, he got away!"

That's the thing I was a bit worried about for a moment. Too much bickering can be trouble. Now I wonder what the Imperial will do when his Bosmer doesn't come back. (Or when he hears two bickering, vampiric necromancers approach.)

Thanks for the comments. That's exactly how I felt, metal mallet. I need to keep the story going.

@ Jack Cloudy: That's what I was going for, I always found the whole bickering brothers thing to be entertaining. And about the imperial captain, you'll soon find out. I'm finishing up the next installment now. expect it within the next hour.

I've been having some internet trouble so I've been a little delayed in getting this next installment posted but here it is.
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"Don't act as if I didn't already know what to do." Axl said as he returned his staff to it's resting place on his back.

"Just accept it, Ax. I'm smarter than you." said Seth, smiling.

"You need to be more cooperative. This unnecessary bickering will be the cause of our demise in the future." with that, he turned and headed deeper into the ruin with his brother in tow. After a few minutes of walking he spoke again.

"There's a high chance of us discovering more bandits, so we need to be cautious. Make extra effort to be silent. We may need to use invisibility to gain the element of surprise in the event of hostility." as he spoke he withdrew a small vial from his robes and said one word, "Invisibility."

They continued on and soon heard footsteps. Lots of footsteps. They hurried back a few paces and dodged around a corner.

"Remain still. I'll proceed and investigate." said Axl before whispering the incantation for his personal invisibility spell. He then proceeded down the hallway toward the sound of the footsteps.

He hadn't gone far when he came upon a large group of men. He counted fifteen, heavily armed and apparently battle-hardened. A stout-looking imperial seemed to be commanding them. After seeing all he needed to, Axl returned to his brother.

"Fifteen strong, heavily armed warriors stand between us and my magicka." he told his brother.

"How much do you have left?"

"I told you earlier I had two Welkynd stones so I'm fine for the moment. This could prove to be entertaining. Shall we?" Axl let a sinister smile creep upon his lips.

"We shall." said Seth, drawing his sword. Axl pulled the staff from his back.

"Drink your potion and get behind them." he said, just before casting his invisibility spell once more.

Seth drank his potion and carefully crept behind the group of bandits. Axl stepped out and got nearly ten yards in from of them before casting dispell and becoming visible. There he stood, in front of fifteen highly experienced warriors, all former soldier in the imperial legion. He was standing just in the right place for his hood to cast a shadow over his face, concealing it. As he spoke he used the most sinister, evil voice he could muster.

"Ah, hello. I'm sorry but I'm afraid I don't like you. For some strange reason your heartbeat offends me. Please, die and spare me the trouble of killing you." The shadow over his face hid a smile as he laughed inwardly. The short imperial stepped forward, shattering Axl's moment of humor.

"Well, we got us a smart boat, do we? Well, lucky-lou, I think you've chosen the wrong group of men to--" he was cut off by a loud crunch followed by an piercing scream from behind. He turned to investigate. Another dark figure was standing over the deformed body of one of his men. "What the fu--"

"You see, we don't like you. Die now." he quickly muttered an incantation and began flinging spells. He turned the short imperial into a block of ice and quickly cast a levitate spell. Hovering over the chaos below, he cast a shock spell which blew the arm off of a large nord carrying an axe. He saw his brother throw an imperial into a cluster of enemies and then dashed into them, swinging his sword wildly.

Axl cast dispell and fell to the ground, summoning a dremora. As the dremora rushed into the battle Axl flung a fireball into the torso of a dunmer who was in the middle of attacking his brother. He then turned to see a warrior completely covered in steel dashing at him. He quickly hit him with a disintigrate armor spell and inmpaled him with the base of his staff. He swung his staff, throwing the corpse into another enemy. The two remaining warriors made a dash for the exit.

"Get 'em!" yelled Seth.

Axl closed his eyes and muttered a long incantation. Opening his eyes, he cast the spell. A purple fireball flew from his fingertips and made it's way through the air before finally hitting it's target. As it made contact the warrior's flesh was ripped from his carcass as his skeleton plowed into the other bandit, impaling him with a sharp bone.

"Holy compassion, when'd you make that one?" asked Seth in disbelief.

"Just now." replied Axl, turning to rummage through the bags of his fallen foes in search of the precious Welkynd stones.

This one took a little longer than expected. When writing battle scenes I have to really think about it. This particular battle wasn't too great in my opinion.

I think the battle was quite good actually. These two are quite a team, if they can control their tongue.

You have to like the theatrical elements you did when describing Axl sudden appearance before the mercs. I loved that dark description. They are definitely a fearsome duo!

Thanks for the comments Jack Cloudy and Metal Mallet. Battle scenes aren't exactly my best but I think I did ok. Now to the point.

I've been working on another story over the last few days and the first installment's been finished. I can't write two stories at a time but I'm really starting to like this other one. I'll post it and let the great people of the forums decided which to keep. The title of this new fic is "Remorseful."

I thought it'd be nice to add a small update to this story as well since I did for the other. I left off at this place intentionally because if this story if to be ended here I'd like to have it go out with a flame.
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Stepping out of the now reaking Ayleid ruin, Axl looked up at the sky and turned to his brother. "A mere ten minutes and I'm now seven Welkynd stones richer with only one fourth of my magicka depleted. That turned out quite well."

"Yes it did. I liked the way you spoke to that Imperial, 'for some reason your heartbeat offends me.' Classic, but don't get used to it. It's not like you're the leader or anything." Said Seth, going from cheerful to irritated. It's amazing how someone's anger can be triggered immediately.

"No, no, of course not. I'm simply the more...charismatic of our deadly duo. Oh, and yet another small piece of information to add something to your relatively spacious yet empty mind, I said 'for some [strange reason your heartbeat offends me.' I suppose memory loss is one of the many side effects of stupidity." Replied Axl.

"What do you mean 'spacious yet empty mind?'" Asked Seth in a dangerous tone.

"It's a metaphor, smart one. It means that you have common sense yet you lack knowledge." Said Axl aggressively.

"Yeah, well...no."

After a moment of silent but deadly tension the two departed once more to the northwest. They walked in silence for nearly the entire trip, partly due to anger but also because they were focusing on the battle to come.

Their plan was to go to Echo cave and retrieve the Staff of Worms and the King of Worms' Robes. Also, whomever kills the King of Worms will assume the throne themselves and control an entire army of Necromancers. Once they've got control of the Wormking's army Axl and Seth will use it to thwart, in secret, the so called "Hero of Kvatch" and stop the Oblivion crisis themselves with the help of their army. Then, amidst the cheering and happiness of their victory they will use their newfound fame and influence to have the ban on necromancy lifted. Sounds like a worthy plan, of course, but many things could go wrong.

"How much longer, brother?" Seth was clearly getting impatient.

"Well, what do you know? Here we are." Replied Axl, pointing to a rock with a wooden door barely clinging to it. They stopped just out side the door to make sure everything was in place. Satisfied and confident they entered Echo cave.

As soon as they entered they felt the presence of their lord, Mannimarco. The entire cavern reaked of his power. This was most intimidating, to be sure, but it wasn't enough to deter the determined duo. As they went deeper into the cave, following the ever growing power of the Wormking, they began to feel unnerved.

"What if he does manage to fight us off. Then what? We'd be dead." Seth said in a weak tone of voice.

"Yes, Seth, I think if he killed us we'd be dead. But he won't, we're five times stronger than normal and we've taken all the necessary precautions. We couldn't be more prepared for this. Now commit to silence and let us do what we came here to do." Said Axl, amazed at how such an intimidating man like his brother could sound so weak when they were alone. It made him wonder if he sounded like that too.

After a few more minutes of uneventful travel the brothers came into an area where the cave opened up into a large chamber. A chamber rich in power. They knew Mannimarco was in there even before seeing him. They could feel him, they could tell his exact position in the room simply by following the trail of power. It was quite an experience for them to say the least. After pausing for a moment to appreciate the sheer energy of the chamber they approached the King of Worms himself and made a decision which would either end them both then and there or give them control of an army of thousands...

Gotta love the characters in this one, I love bickering brothers. Makes it feel so real, and it's actually quite amusing. I can see it being a hard choice between the two you're writing, fortunately I don't have to think about it anymore since I made it. I can see this one being chosen to stick around though. Good stuff!

Yes....an excellent story we have here! I enjoyed reading it so please continue!