Elders Scrolls: Worm (Maybe Multicross)

I want you to imagine a character in Worm being given a version of The Gamer's power as well as the apprentice skills and the words of power from the Worm CYOA version 3. Then I want you to imagine it being even more broken because The Gamer found out how to open the console in-game. And then, throw that person into a hostile wilderness full of monsters and bloodthirsty wildlife where no one, not even the humans and elves, acknowledge or even understand the concept of surrender except as something you say when you want a breather in the middle of a fight. You wait a year, allowing them to grow and develop, and they learn about game mods. Then you take this (lucky?) person and drop them back in Worm.

1. Homecoming

I woke up. This was an unusual experience for me. After all it had been about a year since I had needed to sleep, and months since I had actually bothered too. I then realized that I was lying on my back in my dragon bone armor and opened my eyes, looking up into the sky. It was night, but it was brightly lit, such that you could barely see any stars. There were no cities that bright anywhere in Tamriel. I heard people speaking, but behind that I noticed a sound that was familiar but hard to place. It took a moment for me to recognize the sound: it was the sound of automobile. A lot of them, all around me.

This wasn't Skyrim or anywhere else like that, this was home, my home.

I was back on Earth.

I tried to get up, but couldn't move. I tilted my head so I could look down at my body. I didn't feel any significant weight on my body aside from my armor, yet I was covered in a small mound of some sort of foam. It tickled the back of my mind, something familiar from my old life.

Someone approaches my from my right, walking slowly into my angle of view and engaged my in conversation. Her name was Miss Militia and she wore a close-fitting cloth outfit in varying shades of green with boots and a scarf patterned in red, white and blue. She casually held a weapon, a rifle of some sort, in her hands as she spoke. "Hello, I don't believe that I've heard of anyone looking like you before. Are you a new cape?"

I have several options such as saying that I'm new in town or that I've just come back, but I settle on the most immediately useful: "What's going on? Why am I in foam?"

Miss Militia raises an eyebrow. "You don't know? You were caught in a PRT ambush of the villain Lung. We'd assumed you were working together."

I was captured in an ambush again? Is that required to happen any time I go between worlds? And how did I of all people get captured, especially with all of my adventuring gear?

"I wasn't working with him, I have no idea what's going on," I told her honestly.

"She's not lying," a male voice said off to my left, in the opposite direction of Miss Militia. I turned to look and I saw a man wearing some nice blue and silver armor with a helmet that covered his face but left his chin and his obviously well groom goatee exposed. He was Armsmaster apparently, and he held a halberd. Just by looking at him I could tell that I wanted his armor and weapon even if only for my collection. They were just so shiny; they had to be worth a lot.

Well, I'd been grinding my Pickpocketing skill for a reason, so hopefully I wouldn't have to wait too long.

But of course getting out of the foam and not antagonizing my captors came first.

Armsmaster looked down at me and frowned before asking, "If you weren't helping Lung then why are you here?"

I flicked through my handful of options before answering truthfully with, "I don't know who Lung is, or how I wound up in this foam, but I'm here looking for some family."

Armsmaster nodded. "So you were here with Lung accidentally?"

"Yes."

He sighed. "Great."

"Can I go now?"

He looked at me with what must have been skepticism. "You still need to answer questions, like who you are, but I suppose we can let you up." He waved over someone I couldn't see and turned back to me. "So, if you're new to Brockton Bay, might I ask what your affiliation is?"

I considered my options. I could ask him what he meant or say I was hero, a rogue or a villain. I wasn't really sure what the "rogue" option meant, and I was fairly certain that saying I was a villain because I think I remember from somewhere that Armsmaster was a hero. I didn't want to show off a lack of knowledge which might make them suspicious, so I decided to take a shot I the dark and call myself a hero. I was technically one anyone, and a villain, and probably a rogue too depending on what that actually meant. "I'm a hero."

"That's an edgy costume design for a hero," he replied.

If I could have moved my shoulders I would have shrugged. "It protects me and I like the look."

At this Miss Militia spoke up. "Bone armor?"

"It's very durable."

At that Armsmaster spoke up again. "Is it some kind of special material or treated somehow?"

"Both, actually," I tell him. "When I was making it, I had to mix up something to make it hold together better."

"You're a tinker?" he asked, interested as someone in padded armor started spraying something onto the foam covering me, causing it to slowly dissolve.

"I made most of my equipment myself and modified the rest," I explain. "It wasn't easy given some of the materials I used, but it was worth it. My great sword can cut through can cut through blocks of solid steel after everything I've done to it, though I don't use it much."

"How did you do that? Your equipment doesn't look particularly technological for a Tinker."

"Well, after getting the materials, mixing up something special to help strengthen it and then forging the blade, I soaked it in a potion overnight and enchanted it. I did the same for my repeater crossbow."

Armsmaster seemed to stiffen slightly, though I wasn't sure how he managed it. Miss Militia laughed softly before Armsmaster turned to her with what must have been a glare.

"Enchanting?" Miss Militia asked me, amused.

"Yes," I reply, "I'm able to reproduce most effects or enchantments I've come across, or really anything I've had a chance to study."

Armsmaster turned back to me. "Anything?"

I shrugged as the foam loosened enough for me to move. I replied as I stood up and brushed off the last of the foam. "Yeah, I was able to reproduce some steam powered and magic powered appliances I found in this abandoned underground fortress and use them to create heating in a base of my own. It took a long time to actually make the thing though what with all of the materials I had to collect and forge."

"Really?" he asked, impressed. Then he held out his halberd. "What can you tell me about this?"

I looked at it for a moment and then at his nod I took the halberd and examined it closely. It had dozens of utilities, from tranquilizers in its hilt to a grappling hook launcher and more. It also was ridiculously sharp judging from how high its damage was and it had an enormous price tag.

It was however not enchanted; it seemed that the way my power displayed information had changed, shifting enchantments into a smaller space so that there was room for the description of "Tinkertech." On an impulse I looked at my skills. The normal starry sky full of glowing constellations had shifted, with new skills added. I could see that my one handed melee, two handed melee, and archery skill trees were now complemented by a skill tree shaped like a rifle similar to the one Miss Militia was armed with, signifying guns, and another which looked similar to a tube with handles on it and a grip sticking out close to its center, this one labeled "Heavy Weapons." Alongside those two additions I had a new skill tree called "Tinker" which looked like a square filled with lines that turned at abrupt corners all across it, one called "Mover," which showed a man who looked like he was diving into the air with his fists leading, "Blaster" which took the form of a burst connected to a bean, "Brute" which was a muscular figure posing, "Changer" which was a figure that was human on one side and furred monster on the other, "Shaker" which was a mountain breaking in half, "Master/Stranger" which was a cloaked figure with a puppet on strings floating next to it, "Striker" which was a grasping hand, "Trump" which was a playing card, "Thinker" which was a large brain, "Hacking" which showed a computer monitor and keyboard, and "Drive" which was a car.

So! Many! Skills! To grind!

Cackling I returned to normal time. I looked at Armsmaster and told him, "I want to make one, but with lasers instead of the shock attachment!"

I'd grind my Tinker skill until I could make something better and maybe a hover board or something, though I might not need it if Mover did what I though. I quickly check of my Spells showed the new spell categories, but only Thinker and Blaster had spells in them. Thinker had a spell called Observe, which apparently displays the basic statistics of anyone I was looking at, and Blaster had a spell called Laser Bolt, which was a low damage spell with a chance of knocking back its targets. While Observe would likely be useful, Laser Bolt was much inferior to Destruction spells like Chain Lightning or Incinerate, even with its knockback effect.

This, this had promise.

+ES:W+

Serana turned away from the black sea beyond the library island they were on and looked at her companions. Lydia was tense and pacing near the entrance to the hallway, her hands gripping her weapons tightly.

Miraak on the other hand was carefully pouring through the tome he had open.

Serana walked over to him. "Have anything?"

Miraak glanced up at her from behind his mask. "Perhaps. Look in that tome at the top of that stack," he said, indicating a heavy book. "I'm fairly certain our friend isn't dead but finding a safe path through Oblivion will be difficult."

Serana walked briskly over to the book he had indicated and picked it up. "Then I'd better get reading."

+ES:W+

A/N: For those curious, this is not going to be a story where the characters had balanced powers at all. A Dragonborn running on PC Skyrim logic is kind of ridiculously OP though, and that's without getting into Save Scumming, which yes, the Dragonborn can, will and has done. It's probably one of the reasons those three are willing to cross the multiverse to track down their friend.