North by Northwest

[Braggi]

Hi Gang.

I was finally able to grab a little time for creative stuff after the rather tumultuous last few months. So, here's a book I cooked up for a location called "The Illiac Sound", which is roughly the area of water where the Abacean and the Illiac meet around Betony and the southern cape (south of Daggerfall).

The book was supposed to be a hint leading to a shipwreck dungeon I was planning for incarnation 2 of the project. When I had to step down, I forgot about the manuscript and only just dug it up recently. Please feel free to use it and adapt as you like. Hope this is helpful.


Lore Notes

- The information on the War of Betony (dates, sea battle) was taken from the full plot explanation given in the DFC (official Bethesda hint book for TES2).

- The ship names from the battle are of my own creation - feel free to change them, along with anything else you like, to suit your mod.



North by Northwest: The Waters of High Rock

Volume I - Tales of the Illiac Sound

The waters around High Rock are notoriously contradictory in their extremes - the cold blue-grey waves of the Eltheric Ocean to the north and west, the teeming schools of fish in the Illiac Bay, the mingled waters of the Illiac Sound and the warmer depths of Abecean Sea off the tip of Betony.

The Illiac Sound is notable as the location where two great waters merge - the Abecean Sea and the Illiac Bay. The region is known for storms, tricky currents and riptides along its beaches. Plant and animal life is, as might be expected, a mixture of those that can be found in each of the parent bodies of water. Deep ocean kelp mixes freely with shallow-water pearl-bearing clams. Few pearl farmers exist along the shores of the Sound on either the High Rock or Hammerfell sides: pearls harvested in the region are invariably of low quality. From the few Argonians who have willingly explored the depths here, it is known that many rocks are scattered from one end of the sound to the other, forming a jagged terrain offering suitable homes for slaughterfish and other predators.

Historically, the first battle of the War of Betony took place within the sound, in sight of the city of Daggerfall itself. Although small enough to be considered only a skirmish by historians, the sea battle of 3E 402 was the first engagement in a conflict that would ultimately end in King Lysandus' death on Cryngaine Field and his subsequent haunting of his former capital. The Illiac Sound battle was responsible for the sinking of three ships: the warship Camaron's Herald of Hammerfell and two Daggerfall patrol craft,
the Illiac's Pride and the Privateer's Bane.

With the end of the War of Betony and the drastic changes brought about by the Warp in the West in the years following it, cartographers have not yet had a chance to plot the exact location of the wrecks - indeed, it is unknown if the three ships even rest on the sea bed intact. Given the rocky nature of the underwater terrain and the ever-changing currents, it would be miraculous for any of the three to have survived their plunge to the bottom.

Maritime rumors claim that a curse descended after the battle, supported by tales of ghostly lights in the depths over the where the wrecks are thought to be. One particularly vivid account from Brantir, the Bosmer first mate of the Valenwood merchantman Wavedancer, stands out for its detail. Mid-evening of Last Seed 16 in 3E 410 the Wavedancer was bound for the docks of Daggerfall after a long run north from Greenheart. According to the log the weather was fair, with calm waters and winds from the southwest.

The ship was making good time when she unexpectedly broached a wall of fog. At first it appeared to be only a small fog bank, however it grew in density and area as she made way. Brantir’s log entries describe the crew reporting faint sounds of groaning deck planks and a muffled ship's bell steadily tolling the hour from somewhere. Fearing a collision, a double watch was kept at the rail. In the end it was believed that the sounds must have come from below, since there was no sign of another vessel and no flotsam, jetsam, survivors or wreckage of any type were ever sighted.

The Wavedancer made port without incident later that night and Brantir made quiet inquiries during her layover. Upon discovering that the fog bank was in the area where the three warships sank, her advised his captain to avoid the area as a hazard to navigation. He also left record of his curious account with the Daggerfall port authorities. They in turn treated the account with some seriousness, archiving it against the possibility that the manifestations might be some lingering effect of King Lysandus’ haunting of the city. Since then, other reports have joined it, but Brantir’s account remains the clearest and most detailed.

[The Old Ye Bard]

Nice book Braggi! An excellent addition to the mod, we'll be sure to include atleast one of the shipwrecks

Do you plan to make further volumes?

[Braggi]

Hi TOYB.

Thanks and glad you like it. The thought of adding to the series had crossed my mind, hence the Volume One in the title. If you have any one-shot quests or watery-type dungeons, I might be able to write a volume or two in the series for it.

I envisioned the books as a kind of in-game quest guide for the player for a few of the the non-journal quests that might crop up. If you have any like that in mind it could be fun to write books as back stories for them. Adding a book to the CS is easy enough too, once you know the formatting conventions.

The main thing I'd need is to know what you have labeled the various oceanic areas in the mod, to save you editing and correcting headaches.

Let me know what you think. This book took me a day to write and edit (while working around other things at the time), so it's not a huge chore.

[The Old Ye Bard]

Well there is the Eltheric Ocean, which is the largest body of water which meets High Rock's outer coast, then you have the Abecean Sea which meets the tip of the Daggerfall Peninsula, and the Illiac Bay.

This part of the Eltheric Ocean, I would imagine would be one of the fiercest and unknown bodies of known water, mainly due it would have currents running down from Atmora (similar to those of the Arctic), which aside from storms, you'd also get ice flows and icebergs -not to mention that this would be the route Akaviri Pirates would often take (rather than going through the Yokuda archipelago, which would be a long trip, though I would imagine they'd go through this way if on smaller vessels that needed to get supplies more often). However, some would view this hostility as a bonus, such as smugglers/pirates going deeper into the Eltheric to avoid the Imperial Navy/General Authorities, rather than hugging High Rock's coastline.

[Deeza]

Any chance of a second book Braggi?