Elder Scrolls Forum: [REL] Galur Rithari: The Rest of the Story, v2

Galur Rithari: The Rest of the Story (TRotS) Version 2

This is a quest for the pure of heart (blood). It is based on the contents of a book written by Bethesda, "Private Papers of Galur Rithari, Buoyant Armiger". Galur Rithari became a vampire with horrifying consequences (in my version of "The Rest of the Story"). This plugin fleshes out his story. Evil creatures and formerly evil creatures (i.e. vampires and werewolves) are not welcome. They can not complete the quest. I think that you must be at quite a high level even to attempt this quest as you must deal simultaneously with three fully-equipped level 80 vampires.

A warning: Things are not necessarily what they seem to be.

**This mod requires -both- Tribunal & Bloodmoon.**
It has been cleaned with TESTool and checked with TESAME.
It is clean and intrudes on the original game world only minimally. It is very unlikely that it will conflict with other mods as it slightly alters only two original interior cells. There are three new interior cells. No Bethesda scripts are altered or affected in any way.

Other items of interest:
A book listing all of the skill books in the game and the skill which each improves. *N.B. It doesn't train anything.
A book listing all of the secret masters in the game, their locations, faction requirements, and the level to which they teach their subsidiary skills.
A "summoner" for combat practice.
A chest on which you can train your security skill. The difficulty of the lock increases as your security skill improves.
A full set of containers of all of the alchemical ingredients in Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon, created using those ingredients' original meshes -- "Real" Alchemical Ingredient Containers. What you see is what you get.
After finishing the quest you can use the crypt as a home if you like.

Ransack this mod for anything that you want to use. A mention in the credits of your ReadMe would be appreciated.

New in this version:
Use of DinkumThinkum's diabolical NoTeleport script. Once you enter the crypt, it's life or death (or reload). You can not escape with Recall, Almsivi Intervention, Divine Intervention, or a mod-made teleporter.
No more fatigue drains. (They occurred in appropriate places, but were more of a nuisance than they were worth.)
No music. (Smaller file size. No copyright worries.)
An alternate teleporter, to use if you believe the "artifact" to be unbalancing. (The "artifact" is justified by the story.)
Many small tweaks.

This mod uses only Bethesda-provided resources, no new icons, meshes, or textures. As a screenshot is worth a thousand words, here is the equivalent in words of about 1.4 screenshots.

Manuscripts of Galur Rithari, Buoyant Armiger

"Outnumbered and isolated, I yielded to my foe. The creature dressed like a gentleman, and I hoped for honorable treatment. Instead, I found myself a feast for a blood-drinking monster. What a blessing it would have been had he simply killed me then and there. Instead he drained my life essence until all that remained was the tiniest flicker. Then he opened his own wrist and let his vile blood drip down on to my parched and near lifeless lips. Its attraction, its scent, the will to live whatever the cost, swiftly conquered any aversion I might have been expected to harbor toward such unmitigated evil."

"He and his depraved conspirators then imprisoned me for three days, until my transformation was complete. I felt exhilarated, possessed of incalculable reserves of mystic power, and ravenous with the blood hunger, but also rent asunder by guilt. 'Conscience' in a vampire? A contradiction in terms -- yet I myself was undead evidence of the possibility of this conundrum."

"Shamed by my corruption, and despairing of my own welfare, I passively acquiesced in my gradual integration into the affairs of Clan Aundae. I made no human my prey, only beasts, and kept myself apart from the other clankin; nonetheless, I abandoned hope and lived like a beast. But the rage of the demon is so much more powerful than the will of a mere man. I found myself joining my clankin for dark nights of slaughter in the capital of Vvardenfell itself. I confess. I gorged myself on human blood and felt an ecstasy whose attraction was so great as to be irresistible -- until I took the life of a young Dunmer virgin. When I drew back from her ravaged neck to gloat over the perfection of her pale blue face as death robbed her of her future, I was struck dumb by her resemblance to my sister, Galera. The horror of what I had done seized me and I vowed to leave my clankin, to hide myself from humanity, to bury myself in a prison of my own making. I hid myself in the bilge of a ship bound for Mournhold, and once there explored its sewers until I found a habitat fit for the undead in the gardens of a defiled temple in the ruins of Old Mournhold."

"I spent several years there, feeding on the creatures that found their way to that foul place -- rats, an occasional durzog. One hunt took me rather far afield and I made the acquaintance of an ancient lich whose mastery of the esoteric arts was unmatched even by the oldest spellcasters whom I had met at the headquarters of Clan Aundae in Ashmelech. When my loneliness and isolation had nearly driven me to despair, it took 'pity' on me. (Looking back, I believe it knew that the 'gift' it intended to give me would ultimately prove to be just one more instrument in achieving my soul's eternal damnation.) It instructed me in the fashioning of an artifact which allowed me to visit the lairs of my kind and to indulge in occasional forays into the 'normal' world in search of arcane knowledge. I became an expert alchemist and delved into the most depraved areas of the field of necromancy. From it I also learned how to summon all manner of creatures and created a summoner whose use allowed me to hone my martial skills."

"However, in the end the opportunities which that accursed 'gift' provided for human contact proved to be my undoing. Had I kept my original vow of isolation, I might have spent eternity unknown, 'savoring' a loneliness so deep as to defy description. But now drawn by intimations of my former life, I visited my former post at Bal Ur, hoping perhaps to atone in some small way for my crimes by preying upon its monsters, or perishing under their attacks. It is there that, by chance, I made petition to the Lord of Troubles, Molag Bal, at an altar deep in the caverns beneath the pilgrim's shrine. I was surprised, and thrilled, and terrified, when Molag Bal, or some aspect or agent of that Daedra Lord, offered me a chance to cure myself of vampirism, in return for a favor. Bereft of hope unless I could find a cure, I undertook his quest."

"I sought and obtained a cursed soul gem of mysterious nature from a deep cavern on the northern slopes of Dagoth Ur and delivered it to Molag Bal's shrine in Bal Ur, but I had no conception of the curse secreted within it or of the malevolence of Molag Bal. The price which I paid for my redemption damned the soul dearest to my heart to a fate so horrifying that it drives me mad to recall it. My sister, dearest Galera, was shorn of hope itself."

"I placed the gem within the basin before the altar, and instantly experienced a blinding assault of pain and terror that I cannot express in words, except that it seemed afterward that I had been asleep and dreaming only to be awakened by thousands of tiny knives slicing my bowels from inside out. I awoke before the altar, and gazed at my face reflected in my own sword blade. I was no longer a blood-seeking beast of teeth and empty eyes. However, this euphoria at my return to human form was short-lived."

"Molag Bal had exploited my despair and my hope. It was I (and my sister) who had to endure the curse released by that fiendish gem. My mind had been freed of the demon only to become a thrall of overwhelming guilt. The broken gem had released the souls of three vampire elders, one from each clan. They soon regained their physical forms by assuaging their acute hunger on Galera, whom Molag Bal had duped into coming to Bal Ur firm in the belief that her presence would help me regain my humanity. That it did, but in a way hidden to all but the malice of Molag Bal. My ears were assailed by my beloved sister's excruciating shrieks as those foul vampires tore her to pieces in their feeding frenzy and cursed her with living death, grotesquely mutilating and transforming what remained of her fair flesh into that of a hideous ghoul."

"The Daedra Lord banished us all in an instant to my crypt in Old Mournhold. I used all of my arcane knowledge of necromantic transformation to shield what remained of my sister from further torment. My efforts succeeded only in creating a barrier between her soul and those three ravenous fiends. The barrier surrounds her soul, which in turn encompasses and protects her heart, her disembodied heart. It is the key to her release, a release that only a hero whose soul and blood are free from the stain of vampire or werewolf can provide."

"No longer a vampire and thus unable to use that cursed artifact safely, I hid it inside my sister's heart and called instead upon Almsivi. The three heard my desperate entreaty. Barely escaping with my life, I was transported to the temple in Mournhold, whence I made my way to Vivec where I have deposited this manuscript with the Temple. It will be safe in the Secret Library until the appearance of one worthy to undertake the fearful task of freeing my tormented sister. As for my release, it will only come with death and oblivion. I pray that there is no life after death for me, that my soul will perish with my body. I pray that my sister will not suffer for all eternity for my foolish trust of Molag Bal."

Addendum: Galur Rithari wanted desperately to take his own life. So the Temple imprisoned him for 'heresy'. He was kept under constant surveillance and made no attempt to do away with himself for some time. We believed that he could be useful as a librarian in the Hall of Wisdom and assigned him work there. We have done our utmost to protect the secret of his vampirism -- and the secret of his ultimate suicide, the latter, a mystery unlikely ever to be solved.

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