#goldbrand

No. ...That accursed pirate leapt off and climbed down, crawling through a window-gap between the cannon’s in the Gunport! Kuro's adrenaline, blood swelled high with all this tension. He surveyed left to right the room he was in, knowing his advisory equally as well… Captain couldn’t hope to win against Sol who had all that ammunition on him, or six extra firearms on his holstered coat. He needed to disarm them all in one fell swoop. His items to use were a crate of fireworks the crew wanted to celebrate Captain’s victory at the Budokai but came-up short, there was gunpowder, rigging tools and contraptions, a training dummy and of course cannons that would’ve taken too long. Shortly after, the Captain laid out his plan if he had any… Sol arrived rushing down below taking shortcuts to arrive quicker, he built the Worldly Finder after-all. What a terrifying enemy to go against! Not only a pirate brethren, but shipwright. Captain against a Shipwright the two knew-each other thoroughly, from sea-vessel to personal. In the pitch-shadows of the gun-port, he saw the silhouette of a figure and that infamous Tricorne Hat stood – unbeknownst his hat was propped on the straw-dummy, and a trail of blood-droplets to give it belief, without any hesitation, on impulse alone, he pulled out his gun, and shot a round that was designated to end this chase, an explosive round, there was no fear, only a maniac set to destroy and erase, the recipe for a great ruler of the sea. …But Solaire knew his enemy lacked patience. When that shot connected, of course it led to a chain-reaction, but not like any; Sol accounted for, nor the ship they drifted on the ocean with. Internally a massive combustion came forth, then sparked the fireworks, to spiral everywhere, catching further pyro to everything, leading into gunpowder that led directly up the staircase. Sol’s eyes with lunacy in surprise but also, praise… The Purveyor of Ingenuity showing himself with honor and dishonorably, once again. Again though; this shipwright believed he knew all the tricks against Captain and threw out a contraption, a device that gave a ward, that protected him from the initial impact. It subsided after a ilm, Sol’s foot that back-stepped, hit a snag, a singular rope that was burning from a sparked firework, led directly to his bottom coat. A ember ablaze drew upward; how ironic, this betrayal started with Sol’s attempt to extinguish Captain in cinder. “SHIT!” Came from the Raen, who screamed throughout the ship’s corridors. Forcing him to throw off his chest ware and his arsenal included, now led into using the – secret unbeatable technique: run!

Once that ammunition was given enough heat and fire, that amount Sol carried, a rocketing explosion carried throughout the gunport, denoting and making a huge crater in the room, the ceiling showed the outdoors. The weather’s rain trying its hardest to sizzle out fire but the storm had yet, approached with a devastating downpour. The ship wobbled and forced both of them into launching and losing balance and smashing against wherever they were, everything shook like they received cannonfire from their enemies. Kuro wasn’t in the clear either. That shot that he received, had frighteningly been revealed, among pirates, you should expect foul play. Sol was the Innovator of Disaster, the bulky Seeker felt a dizziness and coldness, sickness in him before vomiting forth. He had been poisoned with an agent that worked against his tolerance. His body often could handle any biological, plant based since his body was not only conditioned in consuming from his Black Shroud visits… But this was a Garlemald force, with hands-on industrial chemical poison. It worked faster than expected. Now Captain was on a clock, to get to his cabin room. The hallway he was in, held a safe-back door way there, with a secret ladder connecting the left and right wing of his closest Crewmates by a ladder and hatch to his cabin. Amongst his pace forth, a turret deployed in ambush came out, detecting Kuro’s heat signature. Thinking quickly on his feet the feline jumped off his feet and grabbed a rope to a lighting source to evade the first shots. He swung himself with rapid-movement channeling Huton between and yanking the fixture with him, swinging off the appliance with force he destroyed both the chandelier and the small-turret bot. All that movement did was quicken the poison, he could feel his breathing congested, his lungs getting infected in distress, not having long before it eventually traveled to his heart or brain, he was against time. Sol was discombobulated and knocked into a barely conscious state from the whiplash of landing so harshly and close to that devised sonic impact, although showing signs of life, his scales had damage. Meanwhile the Blackguard reached the ladder but now, knowing things were booby trapped ahead, going forth, Captain had to be even more careful. The moment he lifted up, a laser flashed across, if it wasn't for his instinct and tail sticking up, would’ve lost his digit. Instead he recoiled, another droid-node was spinning around, searching for further heat signature. Kuro began panicking, heart racing from cold-sweats, he was seeing double-vision at this point. The pirate leapt off the ladder and with the poison’s noticeable effects in his steps, he was stumbling to reach the galley. From there he brainstormed and looked for a fast solution. With survival in mind, he reached into his own flesh-wound and pried finger first with a pain-jerking reaction his bullet still lodged in him. Taking the Crew’s stove and burning a pan he made a make-shift tool to cauterize his protruding crimson ichor that wanted to spurt out into a blood pool. Unable to dally, Captain turned off the stove’s flame and grabbed a match box of lighter, fuse, and a high alcoholic bottle of brew. He returned to that troublesome ladder and concocted a molotov cocktail throwing the contained incendiary with hatch open and overhead, the laser-turret picked up and shot its heat and caught glass-break, which the flames ignited and melted the metal. Kuro, following right behind in pursuit, put out the fire before it grew impossible to quell. Stumbling his skin, noticeably more pale. A thick-dry vomit of blood came ushering out of his design. Taking further strain, the energy of Kuro was fading, it had taken over his entire lungs now. He saw the collection of potions that were neatly in the display case of antidotes, alchemy purposes in his room, he just needed to reach… So tired… Eye’s struggled to stay open, drowsiness was swelling up.

Captain finally clasped palms over the sliding glass to his stash of salvation, upon his knees with little to any coherence left, a tripwire sprung, and every concoction inside was shattered with a rope and cannonball attached from above his ceiling if he had the muster to stand earlier, it would’ve smashed into him breaking his spine from the impact, but instead with Sol’s own dangerous creativity, it still served to be disastrous for a frantic, panicking Captain. “N-n-no….!” Salvation nearly at hand was broken into shrapnel of shattered glass, pools of various liquids were all over the place. Captain somehow had to identify and recognize the right one at this point, from his smell, texture and memory alone. He deteriorated further. Sprawling forth to his only chance. The palpitations in his heart began their last sequences, slowing noticeably, almost instantaneously. Captain lapped against wood, splintering tongue against a green murky pool with his last ditch-effort. However, a stillness came over. Pupils dilated, devoid of life, raspy breathing wheezed, before unfortunately… silence.

And then I got stuck on the fact that the Aldmeri Dominion never expected their Cyrodilic campaign to amount to anything except distracting the legions away from Hammerfell (their true target), and it makes me wonder if Lord Naarifin was essentially sent on a suicide mission, and his pact with the Daedric Princes ended up being a desperate attempt to survive? Basically, if he pulls off the impossible, his campaign gets all the support from home while Lady Arannelya ends up being second fiddle (and as we can see, the moment Naarifin is met with repeated success, Arannelya ends up without any noticeable support or reinforcements, barely surviving, because all resources are allocated to Naarifin, and the Dominion does not care about Hammerfell until they lose Cyrodiil again).

So maybe Naarifin isn’t an Ayleid, like I speculated, or perhaps he is descended from Ayleids, but did not turn to his ancestors’ traditional ways of worship until he was essentially being discarded by his faction as a distraction?

Or perhaps...

(Naarifin, with his snow-white skin and snow-white hair.)

...Naarifin is a different kind of elf (or partial Altmeri descendant of a different kind of elf) with a good reason to hold massive grudges against humans and most peoples of Tamriel...

Like High Elves (or Altmer) are known for their isbelline and golden skin tones.

Wild Elves (or Ayleids), close relations of the High Elves, seems to have ranged between gold and bronze.

Only one type of elf, Snow Elves (or Falmer), are known for having snow-white skin with rosy points and a bluish tinge...