Yay, Elisef! And G’wen sneaks back in as well.
Let’s see. . . Torygg, Ulfric, Tulius and the Emperor all out of the picture. The future of Skyrim is wide open. The primary remaining power players appear to be the Thalmor, dragons and the Dragonborn.
Nit: ’We'll need to figure out whether I make an [a] sudden or gradual recovery.’
Full Version: Kothet's Story
Mm hmm, three subjects, one bed...I can see where that scenario is going too. Mm hmm. Some polygons gonna do some smashing, mm hmm.
I did some Wabbajack quest (or quests?) in Skyrim but this happened was so long ago. Love all the Sheogorath bits, and the perspective your dremora has with his knowledge of daedric feats and general lore fits well into this story.
I did some Wabbajack quest (or quests?) in Skyrim but this happened was so long ago. Love all the Sheogorath bits, and the perspective your dremora has with his knowledge of daedric feats and general lore fits well into this story.
Acadian: I think I originally wrote immediate and then edited badly. 
Dragons are the big imponderable going forward. Kothet is trying to ponder, but he's in the middle of it.
Renee: Sheogorath just fit that part of the story in so many ways, Kothet had to do that quest, even if the quest itself was an irrelevance. It gives Elisif her excuse, It gives Kothet some insights, and generally moves it all along.
-----------
Previously G'wen arrived at Kothet's Tower, on her way to rejoin Titus.
-----------
35 - Words
I became aware that the women were treating this as a competition, and I was the playing field. It shouldn't have surprised me. Dremora are naturally competitive. It's our only avenue for improvement, as we can't just leave it to the next generation to correct our mistakes. And mortals, too, will compete, for much the same reasons.
It seemed to be one of those games where there weren't any losers, so I didn't really care, except to worry if I'd made myself enough potions to restore my endurance.
---
Lying there with an arm wrapped around each of them as they dozed, I found myself comparing the two of them. One small and mortal, one larger and immortal. One new and intriguing, one ... and there I stopped, as the only mortal word I knew - familar - had all the wrong connotations. Our relationship - no, that was a inappropriate mortal word too - connection(?) wasn't based on reproduction, and the structures associated with that. The term "camaraderie" didn't go far enough, and everything beyond that seemed to go towards families again.
Zahra and I worked well together because we fit each other's needs, and covered each other's limitations. We each seemed to know what the other wanted, and wanted it too.
Which all should have left G'wen as a bit disappointing, but it hadn't. Zahra's "unfair" advantage hadn't made things one-sided at all. She was adaptable, and a quick learner, as she needed to be in her chosen career as an assassin, and she'd done well.
So now I was thinking about the differences and the similarities again, as those were features I admired in Zahra, too.
And my thoughts wandered off along the linguistic thread, too. Did the lack of terms I found in mortal language mean that they couldn't understand immortality, and its consequences? Was this in some way related to why dragons couldn't comprehend Dragonrend? That brought me back to wondering, as I'd done before, how I could understand it. But G'wen had just reminded me that I had a lot in common with mortals, so perhaps it wasn't so impossible. I did seem to be uniquely positioned in between men and dragons, and thus able to live in both worlds.
And that thought suddenly made me realise why Dagon had left me here on Nirn. If he recalled me to the Deadlands, he could never send me back. If he wanted any representation here, he'd have to leave me, and any others like me who were here when the Gates closed. Letting me summon Zahra doubled his numbers, but he couldn't go beyond that. It also pleased me to understand that he couldn't risk splitting us apart for that reason. If he tried to substitute anyone else, I would not accept that, and he'd have one fewer dremora here.
That was a pleasant thought to fall asleep on.
---
I woke in the morning with another revelation. Pondering mortals and immortals had somehow improved my understanding of "Slen Tiid Vo". And somewhere in there was the hint that it was partly the complement to Dragonrend, which I could understand, but dragons couldn't. Was that why only Alduin used that shout? Was he different from the other dragons, but more similar to me? I wasn't too happy about that idea, as I saw nothing to admire in him.
---
My nose told me that the competition between the ladies had moved on to the provision of breakfast, as there were way more delicious smells of cooking wafting up than usual. I went down to find a significant spread on the dining table.
Now it was clear that they were waiting to see what I chose first. By carefully watching the reactions when I moved toward one item or another, I managed to fill my plate equally with contributions from both, and leave the "result" undecided. I probably could have guessed most of them without watching the cooks' faces, as G'wen had a bias to meat dishes, that Bosmers never seem to lose.
And it was a good thing to have a substantial breakfast, as we'd be travelling all day, and not really passing anywhere to stop for another meal. The most direct route to the landing, where we'd put G'wen on the boat, avoided any towns.
---
It probably started because the giant thought the dragon wanted to eat his cow. And when we passed by, the dragon thought we'd joined the giant's side of the dispute. Whatever the beginning, the end was a dead giant, and a dead dragon. The cow probably had the sense to run away, because we couldn't find it after.
I was reluctant to try it at first, as I wasn't sure what the result of a failure would be, but I shouted "Slen Tiid Vo" at the dragon's bones. Glancing sideways a moment to make sure I hadn't resurrected the giant, I looked back to see the flesh re-forming around the huge skeleton, and the familiar swirl of light as the magic happened.
A number of other dragons had heard me shout, and by the time this one raised his head once more, there were a circle of others to help him with his confusion at being restored by someone other than Alduin. I only caught a little of what they were saying, but "Dovahkiin" came up a lot.
Paarthurnax' name was mentioned, and I got the impression that they were taking this one to talk with him. That made sense, as who knew the whole story better? They all circled above us in salute before heading off towards the Throat of the World.
---
The rest of the trip was without any major incident. There are always wolves, of course, but we didn't even pass any bandits or Forsworn. They've generally learned not to tangle with us anyway.
The boat was waiting exactly where we'd sent off Titus a week or so before. I peered out sea, but as usual, visibility wasn't too far, and I couldn't see any waiting ship. We waved to G'wen as the sailor rowed her out into the mist.
---
When we reached the Tower again, we found Paarthurnax perched on the rocks near the top, where we could comfortable converse with him from the platform. He asked me when I'd learned the shout, and how.
I still didn't understand the how, but I'd heard Alduin use it several times, at Kynesgrove, and later at a couple more dragon mounds. So the words were familiar, and I'd participated in his final defeat in Sovngarde, where I might have picked up some of his knowledge of their meaning. And G'wen and Zahra may have helped me understand more.
"The words themselves are but a small part," Paarthurnax agreed. "Or else I would be restoring my fallen comrades to Skyrim. And there are few other shouts that I do not know. Dragonrend, of course, and perhaps this one is its kin. A Shout not made by the dov, but by someone else, perhaps Akatosh himself.
"And I fear that like Dragonrend, this is a shout I cannot learn. Perhaps no dovah can, although clearly Alduin was an exception. But he was first, so perhaps he was different from the rest."
"While Alduin was lost in time, there was none capable of restoring a defeated dovah," I reminded him, "and so the dragons disappeared from Skyrim for centuries. Only you remained, isolated on the top of the Throat of the World, where none but the Greybeards could go. If Dagon decides to recall me to the Deadlands, that can happen again.
"Alduin could not be defeated here in Skyrim, which is why dragons could never be eliminated by the Akaviri. Only when Alduin was cast adrift on the currents of time, could they do anything. I do not have that degree of permanence, except by Dagon's whim."
"Are the lesser Daedra that tied to their Princes? I thought that Seducers could be found in more than one of the Oblivion Realms."
"The Kyn, too. But each individual has to depend on a patron for restoration, and mine is Mehrunes Dagon."
"And is that immutable? Cannot another Daedric Prince take his place? Do any others court your allegiance? Have you done any favours that could be repaid?"
Dragons are the big imponderable going forward. Kothet is trying to ponder, but he's in the middle of it.
Renee: Sheogorath just fit that part of the story in so many ways, Kothet had to do that quest, even if the quest itself was an irrelevance. It gives Elisif her excuse, It gives Kothet some insights, and generally moves it all along.
-----------
Previously G'wen arrived at Kothet's Tower, on her way to rejoin Titus.
-----------
35 - Words
I became aware that the women were treating this as a competition, and I was the playing field. It shouldn't have surprised me. Dremora are naturally competitive. It's our only avenue for improvement, as we can't just leave it to the next generation to correct our mistakes. And mortals, too, will compete, for much the same reasons.
It seemed to be one of those games where there weren't any losers, so I didn't really care, except to worry if I'd made myself enough potions to restore my endurance.
---
Lying there with an arm wrapped around each of them as they dozed, I found myself comparing the two of them. One small and mortal, one larger and immortal. One new and intriguing, one ... and there I stopped, as the only mortal word I knew - familar - had all the wrong connotations. Our relationship - no, that was a inappropriate mortal word too - connection(?) wasn't based on reproduction, and the structures associated with that. The term "camaraderie" didn't go far enough, and everything beyond that seemed to go towards families again.
Zahra and I worked well together because we fit each other's needs, and covered each other's limitations. We each seemed to know what the other wanted, and wanted it too.
Which all should have left G'wen as a bit disappointing, but it hadn't. Zahra's "unfair" advantage hadn't made things one-sided at all. She was adaptable, and a quick learner, as she needed to be in her chosen career as an assassin, and she'd done well.
So now I was thinking about the differences and the similarities again, as those were features I admired in Zahra, too.
And my thoughts wandered off along the linguistic thread, too. Did the lack of terms I found in mortal language mean that they couldn't understand immortality, and its consequences? Was this in some way related to why dragons couldn't comprehend Dragonrend? That brought me back to wondering, as I'd done before, how I could understand it. But G'wen had just reminded me that I had a lot in common with mortals, so perhaps it wasn't so impossible. I did seem to be uniquely positioned in between men and dragons, and thus able to live in both worlds.
And that thought suddenly made me realise why Dagon had left me here on Nirn. If he recalled me to the Deadlands, he could never send me back. If he wanted any representation here, he'd have to leave me, and any others like me who were here when the Gates closed. Letting me summon Zahra doubled his numbers, but he couldn't go beyond that. It also pleased me to understand that he couldn't risk splitting us apart for that reason. If he tried to substitute anyone else, I would not accept that, and he'd have one fewer dremora here.
That was a pleasant thought to fall asleep on.
---
I woke in the morning with another revelation. Pondering mortals and immortals had somehow improved my understanding of "Slen Tiid Vo". And somewhere in there was the hint that it was partly the complement to Dragonrend, which I could understand, but dragons couldn't. Was that why only Alduin used that shout? Was he different from the other dragons, but more similar to me? I wasn't too happy about that idea, as I saw nothing to admire in him.
---
My nose told me that the competition between the ladies had moved on to the provision of breakfast, as there were way more delicious smells of cooking wafting up than usual. I went down to find a significant spread on the dining table.
Now it was clear that they were waiting to see what I chose first. By carefully watching the reactions when I moved toward one item or another, I managed to fill my plate equally with contributions from both, and leave the "result" undecided. I probably could have guessed most of them without watching the cooks' faces, as G'wen had a bias to meat dishes, that Bosmers never seem to lose.
And it was a good thing to have a substantial breakfast, as we'd be travelling all day, and not really passing anywhere to stop for another meal. The most direct route to the landing, where we'd put G'wen on the boat, avoided any towns.
---
It probably started because the giant thought the dragon wanted to eat his cow. And when we passed by, the dragon thought we'd joined the giant's side of the dispute. Whatever the beginning, the end was a dead giant, and a dead dragon. The cow probably had the sense to run away, because we couldn't find it after.
I was reluctant to try it at first, as I wasn't sure what the result of a failure would be, but I shouted "Slen Tiid Vo" at the dragon's bones. Glancing sideways a moment to make sure I hadn't resurrected the giant, I looked back to see the flesh re-forming around the huge skeleton, and the familiar swirl of light as the magic happened.
A number of other dragons had heard me shout, and by the time this one raised his head once more, there were a circle of others to help him with his confusion at being restored by someone other than Alduin. I only caught a little of what they were saying, but "Dovahkiin" came up a lot.
Paarthurnax' name was mentioned, and I got the impression that they were taking this one to talk with him. That made sense, as who knew the whole story better? They all circled above us in salute before heading off towards the Throat of the World.
---
The rest of the trip was without any major incident. There are always wolves, of course, but we didn't even pass any bandits or Forsworn. They've generally learned not to tangle with us anyway.
The boat was waiting exactly where we'd sent off Titus a week or so before. I peered out sea, but as usual, visibility wasn't too far, and I couldn't see any waiting ship. We waved to G'wen as the sailor rowed her out into the mist.
---
When we reached the Tower again, we found Paarthurnax perched on the rocks near the top, where we could comfortable converse with him from the platform. He asked me when I'd learned the shout, and how.
I still didn't understand the how, but I'd heard Alduin use it several times, at Kynesgrove, and later at a couple more dragon mounds. So the words were familiar, and I'd participated in his final defeat in Sovngarde, where I might have picked up some of his knowledge of their meaning. And G'wen and Zahra may have helped me understand more.
"The words themselves are but a small part," Paarthurnax agreed. "Or else I would be restoring my fallen comrades to Skyrim. And there are few other shouts that I do not know. Dragonrend, of course, and perhaps this one is its kin. A Shout not made by the dov, but by someone else, perhaps Akatosh himself.
"And I fear that like Dragonrend, this is a shout I cannot learn. Perhaps no dovah can, although clearly Alduin was an exception. But he was first, so perhaps he was different from the rest."
"While Alduin was lost in time, there was none capable of restoring a defeated dovah," I reminded him, "and so the dragons disappeared from Skyrim for centuries. Only you remained, isolated on the top of the Throat of the World, where none but the Greybeards could go. If Dagon decides to recall me to the Deadlands, that can happen again.
"Alduin could not be defeated here in Skyrim, which is why dragons could never be eliminated by the Akaviri. Only when Alduin was cast adrift on the currents of time, could they do anything. I do not have that degree of permanence, except by Dagon's whim."
"Are the lesser Daedra that tied to their Princes? I thought that Seducers could be found in more than one of the Oblivion Realms."
"The Kyn, too. But each individual has to depend on a patron for restoration, and mine is Mehrunes Dagon."
"And is that immutable? Cannot another Daedric Prince take his place? Do any others court your allegiance? Have you done any favours that could be repaid?"
I very much enjoyed Kothet’s reflection on the pair of beautiful ladies and his relationship with the larger jiggly one vs the smaller long-eared one. 
How revealing of Kothet to bring the vanquished dragon back to life and the subsequent conversation with Paarhurnax.
As a traveler in ESO’s Tamriel, I can attest that the lesser daedra can indeed inhabit differing realms. Plenty of winged twilights working under the patronage of several Daedric Princes.
Nit: ’We each seemed to to know what the other wanted,’
How revealing of Kothet to bring the vanquished dragon back to life and the subsequent conversation with Paarhurnax.
As a traveler in ESO’s Tamriel, I can attest that the lesser daedra can indeed inhabit differing realms. Plenty of winged twilights working under the patronage of several Daedric Princes.
Nit: ’We each seemed to to know what the other wanted,’
Today would have had Kothet start Azura's quest, but I didn't like the way it was going, so I'm re-writing. The presence of Dremora inside the Star with Malyn Varen has always suggested Mehrunes Dagon's involvement to me, especially as corrupting the Star itself needs more power than Varen probably ever had. I mentioned that in Clark's version, too.
That makes Azura the perfect choice to adopt Kothet as her Champion, as she'd appreciate the extra revenge offered by taking one of his own.
What derailed the story is my trying to tie up the loose end of Aranea, who's left without visions, and not much to do. Kothet doesn't want another follower, but he'd feel a duty to repay her for the disruption he's caused, in some way. I have some ideas, but they'll take a bit of working out.
That makes Azura the perfect choice to adopt Kothet as her Champion, as she'd appreciate the extra revenge offered by taking one of his own.
What derailed the story is my trying to tie up the loose end of Aranea, who's left without visions, and not much to do. Kothet doesn't want another follower, but he'd feel a duty to repay her for the disruption he's caused, in some way. I have some ideas, but they'll take a bit of working out.
QUOTE
It seemed to be one of those games where there weren't any losers, so I didn't really care, except to worry if I'd made myself enough potions to restore my endurance.
Ha ha this made me laugh! He's drinking endurance potions just to keep up!
QUOTE
And that thought suddenly made me realise why Dagon had left me here on Nirn. If he recalled me to the Deadlands, he could never send me back. If he wanted any representation here, he'd have to leave me, and any others like me who were here when the Gates closed. Letting me summon Zahra doubled his numbers, but he couldn't go beyond that
I love this part. Because it almost seems like you just discovered this fact about Kothet as you were gaming, or maybe as you were writing this. Moments like this always add to the RPing experience, broaden it, and so forth.
Acadian: The post-Alduin fate of the dov is one of Skyrim's untidiest loose ends. In-game they keep respawning even after he's gone, without any explanation of the source. Now it's Kothet, and eventually they'll all be on his side. Aranea's a lesser, looser end, and we'll deal with her next.
Renee: It may have looked sudden on my part, but that was decided when I started to write Kothet's story. I suppose it might have been sudden then.
----------
Previously: Kothet was beginning to understand words, even if he'd never understand women. In particular, "Slen Tiid Vo", the shout that raised dragons. He'd discussed this with Paarthurnax, and decided he needed some insurance that he could continue to restore them in future.
--------
36 - Azura
Paarthurnax had a good point. If I could get myself adopted by one of the other Daedric Princes, perhaps I could ensure my continued existence here. Although I knew that Dagon would be reluctant to recall me to the Deadlands, and lose one of his few representatives here, the temptation to disrupt the dragons would be a big one for him.
So who were the candidates, and how do I go about making contact? I knew of a few of the other Princes' shrines. Meridia and Azura had statues that could be seen near Solitude and Winterhold, and I'd heard that Boethiah had one, too. If any of the others had shrines, they were hidden away, and I didn't know where to find them.
I had something in common with Meridia: a hatred of necromancers. But I doubted her ability to stand up to Dagon, if there was any dispute over me. Azura, on the other hand, was no friend of Mehrunes Dagon, and I know he respected her enough to defer.
So it wasn't a hard choice to make. It just remained to be seen whether she'd respond to my request.
---
Azura's Priestess, Aranea Ilenth, a Dunmer with a serious expression but sparkling eyes, was expecting us. She'd seen our coming in a vision that Azura had given her. I got the impression that she was disappointed about that, so I asked.
"Usually, when Azura gives me a vision, it's in a dream. She sends men to me to ask about their future, and if they make me tired and satisfied, I dream vividly, and tell them all about it in the morning. It's an arrangement that suits me well, and getting the dream without the ... preparation ... was a bit of let-down this time. But I can see why it happened that way." She looked over at Zahra, and I knew what she meant.
The vision involved a "fortress endangered by water, yet untouched by it" and finding an "elven mage able to turn the brightest star as black as night". Aranea told us that she believed the fortress was the town of Winterhold, and the "star" was none other than Azura's Star, the fabled indestructible soul gem that had been lost for decades. She believed that Azura wanted me to find that lost artifact, and return it.
Winterhold was hardly "untouched", but the destruction had been caused by the tremors and landslides in the aftermath of the eruption of the Red Mountain. The water was far below the town, and waves beat in futility on the cliffs. We had no idea who the elf would be so we decided to ask at the tavern, and the patron we chose to ask turned out to be the one we were looking for. Nelacar knew all about Azura's Star, as he'd been working with Malyn Varen at the College when the latter got possession of the gem.
The senior mage had been dying of some incurable disease, and had seen the Star as a possible way to preserve himself. If he could only adapt the Star to hold his own soul, he could effectively become immortal, he thought. Nelacar thought that this desperate attempt was what drove Malyn insane, or perhaps Azura did that, in revenge for what Malyn was doing to the Star. Whichever it was, he'd killed a student as part of his research, and got himself thrown out of the College. He'd taken most of his other students to Illinalta's Deep, an abandoned fortress at the edge of the lake in Falkreath Hold. Nelacar hadn't gone with them, but he'd been ejected from the College, too.
"Whatever you do, don't take the Star back to Azura. She'll drive you mad, too, just like she did to Malyn Varen. The Daedra are evil, ..." Nelacar had just noticed that he was talking to one, and his argument wasn't working.
---
Illinalta's Deep had been abandoned, because it was sinking into the lake. The door must have been submerged long ago, but there was a trapdoor on one of the towers that looked like it might lead somewhere. The water level inside wasn't as high as it was outside, so it looked like we'd be able to access the rest of the building without having to swim.
We knew that the place would be full of necromancers. Zahra has a justifiable fear of necromancers, as they have spells that can banish her back to Oblivion. So she treats them in much the same way she does spiders, which is to blast them with fireballs, even after they're dead. I didn't have to do much to help her, until we got to the stairs that led up the final tower. I had her wait behind me, as I feared that the blast from her spells would scatter everything, and if the Star was here, I didn't want to risk burying it in debris.
As it turned out, there was nobody in the chamber, just a skeleton seated on a chair, with a book at his feet, and the Star on top of it. I picked them up, and read the contents of the book. It appeared that the skeleton was Malyn Varen's and he'd completed his work. Which meant that he was now inside the Star.
It looked very much the worse for wear. The crystal was cracked and chipped, as if it had taken a powerful beating to get Malyn into it. Perhaps it had. I had to take it back to Azura, though, whatever its condition.
---
Back at the shrine, Aranea was as horrified at the condition of the Star as I had been, but told me to lay it on the Altar, and ask Azura what could be done about it. The Princess told me that nothing could be done until Malyn Varen had been evicted, and I would be the one to do that.
"I can send you inside the Star," she told me. "And I will watch over you while you are there. I cannot send your companion with you, however. You'll have to do this alone."
Actually, she probably could have sent Zahra with me, but only by breaking the spell that bound her to me, and she was sure I wouldn't want that.
---
Malyn Varen wasn't alone in the Star, and I didn't believe who he had with him. There were three Dremora mages waiting to defend him. Something told me that Varen didn't do this without help, and Dagon was likely involved.
The mages didn't disappear back to the Deadlands when they fell, either. And fall they did, as their fire spells had little effect on me, but my war-hammer had a lot of effect on them. Varen retreated further into the depth of the crystal, firing shock spells at me as he went. I followed in no particular hurry, as he was depleting his magicka with all that lightning, and I could bide my time until he ran out.
When he could run no farther, he drew a pitiful dagger, and made a brief stand. Soon, though Azura was thanking me, and telling me to gather anything I needed before she pulled me back out. I took the hearts from the mages, in case I decided to make any more weapons and armor.
---
When I stood again before Azura's altar, the Star was whole again. The cracks and chips were gone, and it glowed in a way it hadn't before. Azura addressed me as her champion, and told me that the restored Star was mine to keep.
She'd spoken to Aranea, too, who told me that she'd been informed that she'd received her last vision from Azura. She wasn't sure what she'd do now. Did I need another companion? She'd be proud to serve Azura through her Champion.
I don't need any more than Zahra. Even if she hadn't been standing there listening, I'd have told Aranea that. But has anything really changed, I asked her. Pilgrims will still come to the shrine, and she's still the priestess.
"But the men come for the visions, to find out their future. What happens now?"
"What sort of visions, or dreams, did you have?' I asked.
"It varied, but generally it was treasure for them to find. Most of them, anyway, but Azura wasn't always fair. It seemed that the ones who treated me poorly, and only satisfied themselves, were told of the best treasures.
"There was one man I really liked, and he always treated me well, but Azura would only tell me about minor things, like a farm that was for sale at a good price, or a small amount of gold in a lost chest. Still, it did mean that he came back for more. The others came here once, and I never saw them again. I suppose that's because they got all they needed the first time."
"Or that those treasures you sent them to search for were well-guarded," Zahra suggested. "Did the same treasures come up more than once?"
"I'd not really given it any thought, but you may be right!" Aranea exclaimed. "But that means, they didn't get them, did they? And they didn't come back because ..."
"So perhaps a cheap farm, or a small amount of gold, could be a better reward after all," Zahra continued. "I think that your farmer friend got what he deserved."
"Gets. He's the only one that I see here regularly. And what do I tell him now? Sorry, Azura's all dried up, and there's no more for you."
"Perhaps he won't mind," I remarked. "He could be coming here just to worship Azura."
That was enough to make Zahra collapse in a fit of giggles. Aranea didn't understand what she was laughing about.
---
I wasn't concerned at leaving Aranea at the shrine, now that we'd learned that Azura had made provision for her. Her Dunmer farmer would be there tomorrow, if he kept to his usual routine, and we were sure they'd work something out.
Renee: It may have looked sudden on my part, but that was decided when I started to write Kothet's story. I suppose it might have been sudden then.
----------
Previously: Kothet was beginning to understand words, even if he'd never understand women. In particular, "Slen Tiid Vo", the shout that raised dragons. He'd discussed this with Paarthurnax, and decided he needed some insurance that he could continue to restore them in future.
--------
36 - Azura
Paarthurnax had a good point. If I could get myself adopted by one of the other Daedric Princes, perhaps I could ensure my continued existence here. Although I knew that Dagon would be reluctant to recall me to the Deadlands, and lose one of his few representatives here, the temptation to disrupt the dragons would be a big one for him.
So who were the candidates, and how do I go about making contact? I knew of a few of the other Princes' shrines. Meridia and Azura had statues that could be seen near Solitude and Winterhold, and I'd heard that Boethiah had one, too. If any of the others had shrines, they were hidden away, and I didn't know where to find them.
I had something in common with Meridia: a hatred of necromancers. But I doubted her ability to stand up to Dagon, if there was any dispute over me. Azura, on the other hand, was no friend of Mehrunes Dagon, and I know he respected her enough to defer.
So it wasn't a hard choice to make. It just remained to be seen whether she'd respond to my request.
---
Azura's Priestess, Aranea Ilenth, a Dunmer with a serious expression but sparkling eyes, was expecting us. She'd seen our coming in a vision that Azura had given her. I got the impression that she was disappointed about that, so I asked.
"Usually, when Azura gives me a vision, it's in a dream. She sends men to me to ask about their future, and if they make me tired and satisfied, I dream vividly, and tell them all about it in the morning. It's an arrangement that suits me well, and getting the dream without the ... preparation ... was a bit of let-down this time. But I can see why it happened that way." She looked over at Zahra, and I knew what she meant.
The vision involved a "fortress endangered by water, yet untouched by it" and finding an "elven mage able to turn the brightest star as black as night". Aranea told us that she believed the fortress was the town of Winterhold, and the "star" was none other than Azura's Star, the fabled indestructible soul gem that had been lost for decades. She believed that Azura wanted me to find that lost artifact, and return it.
Winterhold was hardly "untouched", but the destruction had been caused by the tremors and landslides in the aftermath of the eruption of the Red Mountain. The water was far below the town, and waves beat in futility on the cliffs. We had no idea who the elf would be so we decided to ask at the tavern, and the patron we chose to ask turned out to be the one we were looking for. Nelacar knew all about Azura's Star, as he'd been working with Malyn Varen at the College when the latter got possession of the gem.
The senior mage had been dying of some incurable disease, and had seen the Star as a possible way to preserve himself. If he could only adapt the Star to hold his own soul, he could effectively become immortal, he thought. Nelacar thought that this desperate attempt was what drove Malyn insane, or perhaps Azura did that, in revenge for what Malyn was doing to the Star. Whichever it was, he'd killed a student as part of his research, and got himself thrown out of the College. He'd taken most of his other students to Illinalta's Deep, an abandoned fortress at the edge of the lake in Falkreath Hold. Nelacar hadn't gone with them, but he'd been ejected from the College, too.
"Whatever you do, don't take the Star back to Azura. She'll drive you mad, too, just like she did to Malyn Varen. The Daedra are evil, ..." Nelacar had just noticed that he was talking to one, and his argument wasn't working.
---
Illinalta's Deep had been abandoned, because it was sinking into the lake. The door must have been submerged long ago, but there was a trapdoor on one of the towers that looked like it might lead somewhere. The water level inside wasn't as high as it was outside, so it looked like we'd be able to access the rest of the building without having to swim.
We knew that the place would be full of necromancers. Zahra has a justifiable fear of necromancers, as they have spells that can banish her back to Oblivion. So she treats them in much the same way she does spiders, which is to blast them with fireballs, even after they're dead. I didn't have to do much to help her, until we got to the stairs that led up the final tower. I had her wait behind me, as I feared that the blast from her spells would scatter everything, and if the Star was here, I didn't want to risk burying it in debris.
As it turned out, there was nobody in the chamber, just a skeleton seated on a chair, with a book at his feet, and the Star on top of it. I picked them up, and read the contents of the book. It appeared that the skeleton was Malyn Varen's and he'd completed his work. Which meant that he was now inside the Star.
It looked very much the worse for wear. The crystal was cracked and chipped, as if it had taken a powerful beating to get Malyn into it. Perhaps it had. I had to take it back to Azura, though, whatever its condition.
---
Back at the shrine, Aranea was as horrified at the condition of the Star as I had been, but told me to lay it on the Altar, and ask Azura what could be done about it. The Princess told me that nothing could be done until Malyn Varen had been evicted, and I would be the one to do that.
"I can send you inside the Star," she told me. "And I will watch over you while you are there. I cannot send your companion with you, however. You'll have to do this alone."
Actually, she probably could have sent Zahra with me, but only by breaking the spell that bound her to me, and she was sure I wouldn't want that.
---
Malyn Varen wasn't alone in the Star, and I didn't believe who he had with him. There were three Dremora mages waiting to defend him. Something told me that Varen didn't do this without help, and Dagon was likely involved.
The mages didn't disappear back to the Deadlands when they fell, either. And fall they did, as their fire spells had little effect on me, but my war-hammer had a lot of effect on them. Varen retreated further into the depth of the crystal, firing shock spells at me as he went. I followed in no particular hurry, as he was depleting his magicka with all that lightning, and I could bide my time until he ran out.
When he could run no farther, he drew a pitiful dagger, and made a brief stand. Soon, though Azura was thanking me, and telling me to gather anything I needed before she pulled me back out. I took the hearts from the mages, in case I decided to make any more weapons and armor.
---
When I stood again before Azura's altar, the Star was whole again. The cracks and chips were gone, and it glowed in a way it hadn't before. Azura addressed me as her champion, and told me that the restored Star was mine to keep.
She'd spoken to Aranea, too, who told me that she'd been informed that she'd received her last vision from Azura. She wasn't sure what she'd do now. Did I need another companion? She'd be proud to serve Azura through her Champion.
I don't need any more than Zahra. Even if she hadn't been standing there listening, I'd have told Aranea that. But has anything really changed, I asked her. Pilgrims will still come to the shrine, and she's still the priestess.
"But the men come for the visions, to find out their future. What happens now?"
"What sort of visions, or dreams, did you have?' I asked.
"It varied, but generally it was treasure for them to find. Most of them, anyway, but Azura wasn't always fair. It seemed that the ones who treated me poorly, and only satisfied themselves, were told of the best treasures.
"There was one man I really liked, and he always treated me well, but Azura would only tell me about minor things, like a farm that was for sale at a good price, or a small amount of gold in a lost chest. Still, it did mean that he came back for more. The others came here once, and I never saw them again. I suppose that's because they got all they needed the first time."
"Or that those treasures you sent them to search for were well-guarded," Zahra suggested. "Did the same treasures come up more than once?"
"I'd not really given it any thought, but you may be right!" Aranea exclaimed. "But that means, they didn't get them, did they? And they didn't come back because ..."
"So perhaps a cheap farm, or a small amount of gold, could be a better reward after all," Zahra continued. "I think that your farmer friend got what he deserved."
"Gets. He's the only one that I see here regularly. And what do I tell him now? Sorry, Azura's all dried up, and there's no more for you."
"Perhaps he won't mind," I remarked. "He could be coming here just to worship Azura."
That was enough to make Zahra collapse in a fit of giggles. Aranea didn't understand what she was laughing about.
---
I wasn't concerned at leaving Aranea at the shrine, now that we'd learned that Azura had made provision for her. Her Dunmer farmer would be there tomorrow, if he kept to his usual routine, and we were sure they'd work something out.
Yay, Azura! Excellent choice!
"Whatever you do, don't take the Star back to Azura. She'll drive you mad, too, just like she did to Malyn Varen. The Daedra are evil, ..." Nelacar had just noticed that he was talking to one, and his argument wasn't working.’ - -
Aww, nice to see that Aranea gets a happy ending.
And Kothet is the champion to a Daedra Lord who cares a little more about her followers than Dagon does about his.
"Whatever you do, don't take the Star back to Azura. She'll drive you mad, too, just like she did to Malyn Varen. The Daedra are evil, ..." Nelacar had just noticed that he was talking to one, and his argument wasn't working.’ - -
Aww, nice to see that Aranea gets a happy ending.
And Kothet is the champion to a Daedra Lord who cares a little more about her followers than Dagon does about his.
Acadian: There aren't a lot of choices among the Daedric Princes that aren't a case of frying pans and fires. Nocturnal's a bit inaccessible if you're not in the Thieves Guild. Meridia's a possibility, but Dawnbreaker doesn't suit either Kother or Zahra, and he's already found and avoided her beacon.
--------------
Previously: Kothet had collected himself a new sponsor, and a nice-looking Star.
--------------
37 - Brelyna
We went back into Winterhold, to spend the night at the tavern before deciding where to go next. We were surprised to find Brelyna, the young mage we'd met the last time we visited the College, sitting at the bar.
She'd only just found out where Orthorn, the novice mage who'd stolen the books she needed, had fled to.
"He's gone to Fellglow Keep, an old fort between here and Whiterun. Apparently there were a number of mages expelled from the College, and he went off to join them. When people get thrown out, it's either because they did dangerous experiments they weren't allowed to, or they were doing necromancy. In this case, I suspect the latter."
"And you're still here, because...?"
"Because if it was just Orthorn I had to deal with, I wouldn't have a problem. Now I know there are experienced older mages there, I don't feel confident in going alone. When we all went to Saarthal, it was different. I had you two and Tolfdir to help me, and we still only just managed to deal with Jyrik Gauldurson, working together.
"I've been practising my skills, and I can cast a better armour spell these days, and conjure stronger atronachs, but I still don't have enough magicka to cast destruction spells as well. And that's even with Jyrik's amulet helping me. I have to use a staff for that, and worry about the charge running out when I can't afford it."
Zahra seemed to be interested in the idea of hunting necromancers, so we decided to help her again. We wouldn't have Tolfdir, the Master Alteration teacher, with us this time, but with Brelyna's higher skills we should manage.
It should be a workable team, then," Zahra agreed. "We'll plan the route over breakfast tomorrow."
---
As we ate our morning sweetrolls, we talked about spells and alchemy and enchanting. Brelyna had told us that one of her big problems was keeping her staff charged. She had enough magicka to re-cast her atronachs and mage armour whenever they ran out, but once the staff ran out, she couldn't afford to cast offensive spells 'by hand'.
I gave her a handful of filled petty and lesser gems I'd collected. "I don't use these, as my war-hammer's not enchanted, and Zahra doesn't use a staff. I have a lot more unfilled ones, but don't know the spell to fill them."
"You should learn it," Zahra told me. "Now you have Azura's Star, it would be a waste not to make use of it."
Brelyna was suitably impressed that I had the Star. "I know that spell, but only on touch, and I'm always too far away, if I have any control over the situation. What you really need is to have it enchanted on your weapon, so you don't have think about casting."
"But if you enchant the weapon only with Soul Trap, what benefit do you get? You want extra damage on it, too," Zahra pointed out.
"Two enchantments? That's something the expert enchanters can do, but it's well beyond me," Brelyna replied.
I wasn't too concerned. The war-hammer did quite enough damage the way it was. My smithing skill had seen to that, and every time I got the chance, I checked to see if I could improve it further. Still, being able to intimidate enemies with an obvious fire or frost effect, that they could see when I hit their comrades, would be a nice bonus. I think I'd prefer fire, as then Zahra's spells would stack more fire on top.
I made a mental note to look out for those enchantments on the lesser weapons I usually discarded. When I started out, I'd collect those, just for the added selling value, but lately I'd stopped concerning myself with mere gold.
---
Since we weren't going back to Azura's shrine, the road took us past Fort Kastav. We saw a skeleton patrolling the walls, and when it saw us, it raised its bow to take a shot at us. That didn't happen, as both Zahra and Brelyna hit it with fire and shock before it could release the arrow.
However, that brought necromancers running out from inside the walls, and one of them hit Zahra with a Banish Daedra spell.
We'd talked about it after the first time, back in Sunderstone Gorge, and Zahra had told me to summon her straight back into the fray, so I did. And that gave her the satisfaction of returning the compliment. Of course, nobody would be restoring the necromancer!
When the place was cleared, Brelyna asked me about it. "I thought you told me you didn't have much conjuration skill. But you can conjure a dremora mage?"
"She's special. I'm not so much conjuring her, as helping her return. She's my housecarl, which is more than just a summon. And more than just a mage, too. Much more."
---
There were wolves on the road, too, and bandits. Enough to slow us, so we wouldn't reach the Nightgate Inn before dark. Just before we got there, however, I noticed the smoke of a campfire on the other side of the road. "Why would anyone camp out, when they're that close to the Inn?" I wondered.
"Bandits, perhaps?" Brelyna suggested. "Someone who wouldn't be welcome at the Inn, anyway."
"Should we investigate?" Zahra asked me. I saw no reason not to, and now I was curious.
The two we found at the campfire weren't hostile, as we'd expected, although they weren't entirely happy to see us. Salma and Been-Ja didn't want to share the treasure they were sure was inside Ironbind Barrow with anyone else.
"So why haven't you gone in and collected it already?" Zahra asked.
"We were just asking ourselves the same thing," Salma told us. "Beem-Ja's being too cautious."
"We must gather our strength. Who knows what's inside?" the Argonian replied.
"Consider it gathered," I told him. "We're going in, even if you aren't."
That was enough to get them rushing in ahead of us, fearful that we'd get to whatever treasure the place held before them.
We found spiders guarding the ice tunnels near the entrance, so of course there were a lot of fireballs flying from Zahra. Fortunately, the Redguard and the Argonian weren't so far ahead that they were close to the spiders when they struck, but I did have to remind Zahra that these two didn't have our resistance to fire.
It didn't matter, as we were soon at the entrance to a Nordic tomb, and looking for a way to unlock the grating. Brelyna found a handle hidden in an alcove and turned it, and the grating opened without a key. No sign of spider webs beyond the next door, so perhaps the fireballs would be tossed more calmly as we proceeded.
Beem-Ja was delighted. This was looking more and more like the "Gathrik's Tomb" he'd hoped to find. Presumably he'd researched the place, and had some idea of what was ahead of us, and what treasure he expected to find, but he wasn't sharing the information with us.
Some of it didn't need telling. This was a Nordic tomb, so we were encountering draugr. And the usual traps, with spears thrusting out of holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling if you trod on the wrong stone, or picked up the wrong helmet.
I was a bit surprised not to find one of those puzzle doors, with its dragon claw key. The corridor we were in looked just like those that usually led to one.
The chamber beyond it had a word wall at the far end, so my guess was that we'd arrived at our destination, and I was expecting the next draugr to be a powerful one.
What we found, however were skeletons. Two archers, and a mage with the usual frost spells. We had them outnumbered, and they quickly fell.
That's when Gathrik finally took notice. The draugr got up from his throne facing the word wall, and came towards us, brandishing an ebony longsword. I moved to intercept him before he got to Salma. She was clad in steel plate, and her sword was steel, too. This draugr was likely more than she could handle, so Beem-Ja's reticence to come in here was justified. I, however, wear legendary daedric, as is my war-hammer.
He blocked my first blow with his shield, but the others all hit him with spells. All but Salma, who was thankfully holding back at this point. That prevented him from dealing much of a riposte, and I had a second chance to swing. This time he went down.
And got back up again. Raised by Beem-Ja, who clearly wanted everything here for himself. Zahra and Brelyna turned to deal with him, as I renewed my battle with Gathrik.
He wasn't as tough the second time around, although I did have to block a couple of swings of his sword. I looked down to where the others had cornered Beem-Ja, just in time to see him fall, too.
Salma was devastated that the Argonian had turned on us. "Father never trusted Beem-Ja," she told us. "Now I know why. Take anything you want. I'll just spend a while getting myself back together, and I'll be heading home."
I approached the word wall, to find out what this one would teach me. More of Become Ethereal, it turned out. The chest nearby had a few minor items in it, and there were more behind Gathrik's throne. The steel battleaxe didn't look too inviting, but Brelyna thought it was something special.
"It's got just the enchantment you need!" she told me. "A single enchantment that has both a soul trap effect and fire damage."
"That's one enchantment?" Zahra queried. "It sounds like two."
"No there are a few special ones like this. Such as on my robes. I have fortify alteration, and regenerate magicka together as a single enchantment. It's stronger than I can manage, as these college robes are made by more experienced mages, but I've found the same on the plain black ones, at lower levels."
"So is there a way to transfer it to my war-hammer?" I asked
"Yes. It means destroying the current axe, but I don't think you care about that. Once I know the enchantment from doing that, I can apply it to any weapon. I do need to use an enchanter's bench, though, and there isn't one here."
I kept the axe. We'd find the apparatus somewhere on our travels, I was sure.
--------------
Previously: Kothet had collected himself a new sponsor, and a nice-looking Star.
--------------
37 - Brelyna
We went back into Winterhold, to spend the night at the tavern before deciding where to go next. We were surprised to find Brelyna, the young mage we'd met the last time we visited the College, sitting at the bar.
She'd only just found out where Orthorn, the novice mage who'd stolen the books she needed, had fled to.
"He's gone to Fellglow Keep, an old fort between here and Whiterun. Apparently there were a number of mages expelled from the College, and he went off to join them. When people get thrown out, it's either because they did dangerous experiments they weren't allowed to, or they were doing necromancy. In this case, I suspect the latter."
"And you're still here, because...?"
"Because if it was just Orthorn I had to deal with, I wouldn't have a problem. Now I know there are experienced older mages there, I don't feel confident in going alone. When we all went to Saarthal, it was different. I had you two and Tolfdir to help me, and we still only just managed to deal with Jyrik Gauldurson, working together.
"I've been practising my skills, and I can cast a better armour spell these days, and conjure stronger atronachs, but I still don't have enough magicka to cast destruction spells as well. And that's even with Jyrik's amulet helping me. I have to use a staff for that, and worry about the charge running out when I can't afford it."
Zahra seemed to be interested in the idea of hunting necromancers, so we decided to help her again. We wouldn't have Tolfdir, the Master Alteration teacher, with us this time, but with Brelyna's higher skills we should manage.
It should be a workable team, then," Zahra agreed. "We'll plan the route over breakfast tomorrow."
---
As we ate our morning sweetrolls, we talked about spells and alchemy and enchanting. Brelyna had told us that one of her big problems was keeping her staff charged. She had enough magicka to re-cast her atronachs and mage armour whenever they ran out, but once the staff ran out, she couldn't afford to cast offensive spells 'by hand'.
I gave her a handful of filled petty and lesser gems I'd collected. "I don't use these, as my war-hammer's not enchanted, and Zahra doesn't use a staff. I have a lot more unfilled ones, but don't know the spell to fill them."
"You should learn it," Zahra told me. "Now you have Azura's Star, it would be a waste not to make use of it."
Brelyna was suitably impressed that I had the Star. "I know that spell, but only on touch, and I'm always too far away, if I have any control over the situation. What you really need is to have it enchanted on your weapon, so you don't have think about casting."
"But if you enchant the weapon only with Soul Trap, what benefit do you get? You want extra damage on it, too," Zahra pointed out.
"Two enchantments? That's something the expert enchanters can do, but it's well beyond me," Brelyna replied.
I wasn't too concerned. The war-hammer did quite enough damage the way it was. My smithing skill had seen to that, and every time I got the chance, I checked to see if I could improve it further. Still, being able to intimidate enemies with an obvious fire or frost effect, that they could see when I hit their comrades, would be a nice bonus. I think I'd prefer fire, as then Zahra's spells would stack more fire on top.
I made a mental note to look out for those enchantments on the lesser weapons I usually discarded. When I started out, I'd collect those, just for the added selling value, but lately I'd stopped concerning myself with mere gold.
---
Since we weren't going back to Azura's shrine, the road took us past Fort Kastav. We saw a skeleton patrolling the walls, and when it saw us, it raised its bow to take a shot at us. That didn't happen, as both Zahra and Brelyna hit it with fire and shock before it could release the arrow.
However, that brought necromancers running out from inside the walls, and one of them hit Zahra with a Banish Daedra spell.
We'd talked about it after the first time, back in Sunderstone Gorge, and Zahra had told me to summon her straight back into the fray, so I did. And that gave her the satisfaction of returning the compliment. Of course, nobody would be restoring the necromancer!
When the place was cleared, Brelyna asked me about it. "I thought you told me you didn't have much conjuration skill. But you can conjure a dremora mage?"
"She's special. I'm not so much conjuring her, as helping her return. She's my housecarl, which is more than just a summon. And more than just a mage, too. Much more."
---
There were wolves on the road, too, and bandits. Enough to slow us, so we wouldn't reach the Nightgate Inn before dark. Just before we got there, however, I noticed the smoke of a campfire on the other side of the road. "Why would anyone camp out, when they're that close to the Inn?" I wondered.
"Bandits, perhaps?" Brelyna suggested. "Someone who wouldn't be welcome at the Inn, anyway."
"Should we investigate?" Zahra asked me. I saw no reason not to, and now I was curious.
The two we found at the campfire weren't hostile, as we'd expected, although they weren't entirely happy to see us. Salma and Been-Ja didn't want to share the treasure they were sure was inside Ironbind Barrow with anyone else.
"So why haven't you gone in and collected it already?" Zahra asked.
"We were just asking ourselves the same thing," Salma told us. "Beem-Ja's being too cautious."
"We must gather our strength. Who knows what's inside?" the Argonian replied.
"Consider it gathered," I told him. "We're going in, even if you aren't."
That was enough to get them rushing in ahead of us, fearful that we'd get to whatever treasure the place held before them.
We found spiders guarding the ice tunnels near the entrance, so of course there were a lot of fireballs flying from Zahra. Fortunately, the Redguard and the Argonian weren't so far ahead that they were close to the spiders when they struck, but I did have to remind Zahra that these two didn't have our resistance to fire.
It didn't matter, as we were soon at the entrance to a Nordic tomb, and looking for a way to unlock the grating. Brelyna found a handle hidden in an alcove and turned it, and the grating opened without a key. No sign of spider webs beyond the next door, so perhaps the fireballs would be tossed more calmly as we proceeded.
Beem-Ja was delighted. This was looking more and more like the "Gathrik's Tomb" he'd hoped to find. Presumably he'd researched the place, and had some idea of what was ahead of us, and what treasure he expected to find, but he wasn't sharing the information with us.
Some of it didn't need telling. This was a Nordic tomb, so we were encountering draugr. And the usual traps, with spears thrusting out of holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling if you trod on the wrong stone, or picked up the wrong helmet.
I was a bit surprised not to find one of those puzzle doors, with its dragon claw key. The corridor we were in looked just like those that usually led to one.
The chamber beyond it had a word wall at the far end, so my guess was that we'd arrived at our destination, and I was expecting the next draugr to be a powerful one.
What we found, however were skeletons. Two archers, and a mage with the usual frost spells. We had them outnumbered, and they quickly fell.
That's when Gathrik finally took notice. The draugr got up from his throne facing the word wall, and came towards us, brandishing an ebony longsword. I moved to intercept him before he got to Salma. She was clad in steel plate, and her sword was steel, too. This draugr was likely more than she could handle, so Beem-Ja's reticence to come in here was justified. I, however, wear legendary daedric, as is my war-hammer.
He blocked my first blow with his shield, but the others all hit him with spells. All but Salma, who was thankfully holding back at this point. That prevented him from dealing much of a riposte, and I had a second chance to swing. This time he went down.
And got back up again. Raised by Beem-Ja, who clearly wanted everything here for himself. Zahra and Brelyna turned to deal with him, as I renewed my battle with Gathrik.
He wasn't as tough the second time around, although I did have to block a couple of swings of his sword. I looked down to where the others had cornered Beem-Ja, just in time to see him fall, too.
Salma was devastated that the Argonian had turned on us. "Father never trusted Beem-Ja," she told us. "Now I know why. Take anything you want. I'll just spend a while getting myself back together, and I'll be heading home."
I approached the word wall, to find out what this one would teach me. More of Become Ethereal, it turned out. The chest nearby had a few minor items in it, and there were more behind Gathrik's throne. The steel battleaxe didn't look too inviting, but Brelyna thought it was something special.
"It's got just the enchantment you need!" she told me. "A single enchantment that has both a soul trap effect and fire damage."
"That's one enchantment?" Zahra queried. "It sounds like two."
"No there are a few special ones like this. Such as on my robes. I have fortify alteration, and regenerate magicka together as a single enchantment. It's stronger than I can manage, as these college robes are made by more experienced mages, but I've found the same on the plain black ones, at lower levels."
"So is there a way to transfer it to my war-hammer?" I asked
"Yes. It means destroying the current axe, but I don't think you care about that. Once I know the enchantment from doing that, I can apply it to any weapon. I do need to use an enchanter's bench, though, and there isn't one here."
I kept the axe. We'd find the apparatus somewhere on our travels, I was sure.
I love how you brought the MG into this via Brelyna. She is such a likable character. As they talked about soul trapping, firery soul trap came to mind. When you mentioned Ironbind Barrow I really smiled.
That is so good that Kothet can resummon Zahira the Jiggly – bet that was a big surprise to that pesky necrodude!
Nit: "Kother, and Zahra.” - - Spelling of Kothet.
That is so good that Kothet can resummon Zahira the Jiggly – bet that was a big surprise to that pesky necrodude!
Nit: "Kother, and Zahra.” - - Spelling of Kothet.
Acadian: I'd already brought Brelyna in about ten episodes ago, when K&Z had got directions to Septimus' outpost. She was supposed to go looking for Orthorn then, but it apparently took her all this time to find out where he went. I'd forgotten that they helped her in Saarthal, but I can't account for them forgetting, too. This episode may need a bit of adjustment. 
Edit: changed the opening so they know each other.
Edit: changed the opening so they know each other.
With all that fixed, we can continue...
-----------
Previously: Brelyna had asked Kothet for help in her mission to retrieve some books for the College.
-----------
38 - Fellglow
They didn't have one at the Nightgate Inn, but they did have food, drink and a comfortable bed - for one guest. Zahra and I put our bedrolls on the floor, and let Brelyna have the bed.
We left the inn the back way, and headed south down the trail. We'd have to cross the ridge before we got to Fellglow Keep, but the road went way too far east, so the climb was still worth the effort.
At the top, at a place called Shearpoint, we found another word wall, and perched on it was a dragon. This was the first one Brelyna had ever seen, and she didn't know what to expect. I wasn't sure any more, either. Was this one going to be hostile, or had it been brought around by Paarthurnax, and his allies?
It turned out that we had more to deal with than just the dragon, and perhaps the dragon priest that rose from the coffin by the wall had some influence over the great beast. We were met with a fireball from the priest's staff, and a blast of frost from the dragon.
I told the mages to leave the dragon to me, and to try and suppress the priest's spells. Dragonrend gave me all the advantage I needed, but I'd rather fight just the one battle. We went in opposite directions, following our respective opponents.
The dragon circled back to land in front of the wall, which was really the only level ground he had available. I closed on him, trying to make his end as quick as I could. And then before the others returned from chasing the dragon priest down the hillside, I shouted "Slen Tiid Vo" at his bones, and brought him back.
---
"You let him get away?" Brelyna asked me, as I watched the dragon fly off towards the Throat of the World.
Zahra corrected her. She'd seen me do this before, and knew what had really happened. "Sent him away, is more accurate. He's gone to be re-educated, if I'm not mistaken."
"Talking of education, I wonder what this wall will teach me?" I countered, walking towards it.
It gave me all three words I could use for a new shout, except that this was almost the opposite of a shout. If I decided to make use of it, it would make my voice, and that's my normal voice, not another shout, seem like it's coming from somewhere else. I decided to leave it locked for now.
---
We were soon at Fellglow Keep, where we found a couple of mages, and a flame atronach guarding the entrance. Flames don't bother any of us much, but one of the mages knew some frost spells. Brelyna sent a frost atronach to deal with her, while we ganged up on the others.
We soon found that the main door wouldn't open for us, probably barred from the inside, but there was another door that would let us in through the old dungeons. We headed inside.
Zahra was particularly disgusted to discover that the mage we met next kept spiders as pets. There wasn't a lot left of him (or his pets) when we moved on. I hoped we wouldn't meet any more spiders as we went deeper into the ruins.
No, the next mage was keeping vampires, and they were prisoners, rather than accomplices, and rather resented their captivity. I pulled the levers operating their cell doors, and stood back and watched the mages get what was coming to them. A few of the corpses we passed in the next room weren't so fresh, as some of the vampires had already become the conjurers' victims. There were a couple of ash piles there too, as they'd apparently tried to resurrect some allies.
I was starting to think that we had a mixed bag of all the College rejects here, not just a coherent band of necromancers like I first thought. That could mean that they wouldn't be as united against us as Brelyna had feared.
We heard wolves just up the corridor ahead of us, and expected yet another variant of prohibited practices. We couldn't tell, as they were caged either side of an Altmer prisoner, who was wearing College robes. We guessed that this was Orthorn.
After dealing with his guard, and the wolves that he released to harass us, we found out that it was indeed Orthorn in the middle cage. "Aren't you going to release me?" he asked.
Brelyna considered that. She didn't really trust him, even though he obviously had been betrayed or rejected by the mages he'd followed here. "I think you'll be safer here," she told him. "We'll come back for you when we have the books."
Orthorn warned us that the Caller, the mage who ran the place, was dangerous, and we'd need him. We didn't think so.
---
The next door would have led us in to the keep itself, but it was locked. Again we had to detour around through more of the dungeon, and again we encountered conjurers and vampires. The latter were being used for target practice, and one was already dead. We didn't find out the fate of the other, as we left the conjurers as smouldering corpses and moved on into the keep.
The mages in the keep didn't appear to be conducting any banned experiments, but I didn't know all the College's rules and regulations. They were aggressive, however, and uniformly attacked us on sight, so whatever they were doing, they knew it was illegal. Most of them were wearing the robes we'd come to associate with necromancers. It was almost like a uniform for them.
The woman in the final chamber was different. a tall Altmer mage with an apparently calm disposition. Her blue robe was tied at the waist to accentuate her figure, and she exuded charisma. She was presumably the Caller, the one that Orthorn, (likely infatuated with her) had followed from the College.
She demanded to know why we were here, and Brelyna answered.
"So you're just one of Aren's lackeys? That's disappointing. You show real promise. You come here, kill my assistants, disrupt my work... You've annoyed me, so I don't think I'll be giving you anything."
That's when she attacked, summoning a flame atronach to assist her. Brelyna countered with a frost atronach of her own, and I moved in with my war-hammer, as Zahra flung fireballs. When she fell, it wasn't over, as the pedestals the books were on summoned more flame atronachs when we picked up the books.
A key we found on the Caller's body let us take a short-cut back down the tower, and find a good deal of extra loot on the way. When we released Orthorn, we asked if he'd go back to the College and ask to be reinstated. "You'll be going back to the College, then? I, uhh... I think perhaps I'll wait a bit before venturing there myself. Let this whole thing blow over, you know. Give certain parties a chance to forget what I may have done. Still, you've gotten me out of that cage, and I won't forget it. Thank you again, and good luck to you."
Brelyna didn't think she'd ever see him again, but she wasn't that concerned. The books mattered a lot more than Orthorn, and one in particular - "Night of Tears" - was related to Saarthal, and might provide the clues she needed.
---
"There's something I've been meaning to ask you," Brelyna began. "Ever since I found out that Zahra's summoned, it's been worrying me. When I summon a frost atronach, for example, it's completely under my control, and has little, if any, free will. But I know that you and Zahra are, well, you know what I mean. Doesn't it worry you that it might not be as voluntary as it should be?"
I related to her the whole story of when I first got the spell, and how she wouldn't even talk to me for so long. Well, it seemed like a long time, but it probably wasn't. I didn't go into too much detail about what happened when she first got the chance to say yes.
"I think that's why it takes so little magicka to cast the spell," I told her. "When you summon an atronach, most of the power is used to control it.
"Besides, I'm not so much summoning her, as telling her it's all right to visit again. The compacts between the realms don't allow the inhabitants to pass between them without permission. I was brought here by the Mythic Dawn, back at the end of the Third Era, and Dagon left me here, as he could never send me back. Even a Deadric Prince can't just send an army where he wants it to go. But I can invite Zahra to come here, and that's allowed. You know that only the most powerful conjurers can manage a second summon, and I'm not among them.
"Dagon gets an extra representative here this way, so he helps it all along. I'm sure he had something to do with the creation of the spell, even if it's a bit more sophisticated than his usual schemes. It may even have been Zahra's idea in the first place, and he just added his power to make it happen."
-----------
Previously: Brelyna had asked Kothet for help in her mission to retrieve some books for the College.
-----------
38 - Fellglow
They didn't have one at the Nightgate Inn, but they did have food, drink and a comfortable bed - for one guest. Zahra and I put our bedrolls on the floor, and let Brelyna have the bed.
We left the inn the back way, and headed south down the trail. We'd have to cross the ridge before we got to Fellglow Keep, but the road went way too far east, so the climb was still worth the effort.
At the top, at a place called Shearpoint, we found another word wall, and perched on it was a dragon. This was the first one Brelyna had ever seen, and she didn't know what to expect. I wasn't sure any more, either. Was this one going to be hostile, or had it been brought around by Paarthurnax, and his allies?
It turned out that we had more to deal with than just the dragon, and perhaps the dragon priest that rose from the coffin by the wall had some influence over the great beast. We were met with a fireball from the priest's staff, and a blast of frost from the dragon.
I told the mages to leave the dragon to me, and to try and suppress the priest's spells. Dragonrend gave me all the advantage I needed, but I'd rather fight just the one battle. We went in opposite directions, following our respective opponents.
The dragon circled back to land in front of the wall, which was really the only level ground he had available. I closed on him, trying to make his end as quick as I could. And then before the others returned from chasing the dragon priest down the hillside, I shouted "Slen Tiid Vo" at his bones, and brought him back.
---
"You let him get away?" Brelyna asked me, as I watched the dragon fly off towards the Throat of the World.
Zahra corrected her. She'd seen me do this before, and knew what had really happened. "Sent him away, is more accurate. He's gone to be re-educated, if I'm not mistaken."
"Talking of education, I wonder what this wall will teach me?" I countered, walking towards it.
It gave me all three words I could use for a new shout, except that this was almost the opposite of a shout. If I decided to make use of it, it would make my voice, and that's my normal voice, not another shout, seem like it's coming from somewhere else. I decided to leave it locked for now.
---
We were soon at Fellglow Keep, where we found a couple of mages, and a flame atronach guarding the entrance. Flames don't bother any of us much, but one of the mages knew some frost spells. Brelyna sent a frost atronach to deal with her, while we ganged up on the others.
We soon found that the main door wouldn't open for us, probably barred from the inside, but there was another door that would let us in through the old dungeons. We headed inside.
Zahra was particularly disgusted to discover that the mage we met next kept spiders as pets. There wasn't a lot left of him (or his pets) when we moved on. I hoped we wouldn't meet any more spiders as we went deeper into the ruins.
No, the next mage was keeping vampires, and they were prisoners, rather than accomplices, and rather resented their captivity. I pulled the levers operating their cell doors, and stood back and watched the mages get what was coming to them. A few of the corpses we passed in the next room weren't so fresh, as some of the vampires had already become the conjurers' victims. There were a couple of ash piles there too, as they'd apparently tried to resurrect some allies.
I was starting to think that we had a mixed bag of all the College rejects here, not just a coherent band of necromancers like I first thought. That could mean that they wouldn't be as united against us as Brelyna had feared.
We heard wolves just up the corridor ahead of us, and expected yet another variant of prohibited practices. We couldn't tell, as they were caged either side of an Altmer prisoner, who was wearing College robes. We guessed that this was Orthorn.
After dealing with his guard, and the wolves that he released to harass us, we found out that it was indeed Orthorn in the middle cage. "Aren't you going to release me?" he asked.
Brelyna considered that. She didn't really trust him, even though he obviously had been betrayed or rejected by the mages he'd followed here. "I think you'll be safer here," she told him. "We'll come back for you when we have the books."
Orthorn warned us that the Caller, the mage who ran the place, was dangerous, and we'd need him. We didn't think so.
---
The next door would have led us in to the keep itself, but it was locked. Again we had to detour around through more of the dungeon, and again we encountered conjurers and vampires. The latter were being used for target practice, and one was already dead. We didn't find out the fate of the other, as we left the conjurers as smouldering corpses and moved on into the keep.
The mages in the keep didn't appear to be conducting any banned experiments, but I didn't know all the College's rules and regulations. They were aggressive, however, and uniformly attacked us on sight, so whatever they were doing, they knew it was illegal. Most of them were wearing the robes we'd come to associate with necromancers. It was almost like a uniform for them.
The woman in the final chamber was different. a tall Altmer mage with an apparently calm disposition. Her blue robe was tied at the waist to accentuate her figure, and she exuded charisma. She was presumably the Caller, the one that Orthorn, (likely infatuated with her) had followed from the College.
She demanded to know why we were here, and Brelyna answered.
"So you're just one of Aren's lackeys? That's disappointing. You show real promise. You come here, kill my assistants, disrupt my work... You've annoyed me, so I don't think I'll be giving you anything."
That's when she attacked, summoning a flame atronach to assist her. Brelyna countered with a frost atronach of her own, and I moved in with my war-hammer, as Zahra flung fireballs. When she fell, it wasn't over, as the pedestals the books were on summoned more flame atronachs when we picked up the books.
A key we found on the Caller's body let us take a short-cut back down the tower, and find a good deal of extra loot on the way. When we released Orthorn, we asked if he'd go back to the College and ask to be reinstated. "You'll be going back to the College, then? I, uhh... I think perhaps I'll wait a bit before venturing there myself. Let this whole thing blow over, you know. Give certain parties a chance to forget what I may have done. Still, you've gotten me out of that cage, and I won't forget it. Thank you again, and good luck to you."
Brelyna didn't think she'd ever see him again, but she wasn't that concerned. The books mattered a lot more than Orthorn, and one in particular - "Night of Tears" - was related to Saarthal, and might provide the clues she needed.
---
"There's something I've been meaning to ask you," Brelyna began. "Ever since I found out that Zahra's summoned, it's been worrying me. When I summon a frost atronach, for example, it's completely under my control, and has little, if any, free will. But I know that you and Zahra are, well, you know what I mean. Doesn't it worry you that it might not be as voluntary as it should be?"
I related to her the whole story of when I first got the spell, and how she wouldn't even talk to me for so long. Well, it seemed like a long time, but it probably wasn't. I didn't go into too much detail about what happened when she first got the chance to say yes.
"I think that's why it takes so little magicka to cast the spell," I told her. "When you summon an atronach, most of the power is used to control it.
"Besides, I'm not so much summoning her, as telling her it's all right to visit again. The compacts between the realms don't allow the inhabitants to pass between them without permission. I was brought here by the Mythic Dawn, back at the end of the Third Era, and Dagon left me here, as he could never send me back. Even a Deadric Prince can't just send an army where he wants it to go. But I can invite Zahra to come here, and that's allowed. You know that only the most powerful conjurers can manage a second summon, and I'm not among them.
"Dagon gets an extra representative here this way, so he helps it all along. I'm sure he had something to do with the creation of the spell, even if it's a bit more sophisticated than his usual schemes. It may even have been Zahra's idea in the first place, and he just added his power to make it happen."
Aww, nice that Kothet sent that naughty dragon off to Parthy’s school for wayward dovah.
Nice handling of Orthorn and the other misfits populating Fellglow.
More good character development as Kothet answers Bre’s question about the scope of his control over Zahra.
Nit - - ’If I decided to make use of it, it would make my voice, and that's my normal voice, not a another shout, seem like it's coming from somewhere else.’ - - An extra ‘a’ in front of another.
Nice handling of Orthorn and the other misfits populating Fellglow.
More good character development as Kothet answers Bre’s question about the scope of his control over Zahra.
Nit - - ’If I decided to make use of it, it would make my voice, and that's my normal voice, not a another shout, seem like it's coming from somewhere else.’ - - An extra ‘a’ in front of another.
QUOTE(ghastley @ May 22 2017, 09:17 AM) 
The mages in the keep didn't appear to be conducting any banned experiments, but I didn't know all the College's rules and regulations. They were aggressive, however, and uniformly attacked us on sight, so whatever they were doing, they knew it was illegal. Most of them were wearing the robes we'd come to associate with necromancers. It was almost like a uniform for them.
Ha ha yeah, you know?
I like all the action in these last two chapters, and Brelyna often adds a nice touch, companion-wise. The dialog is killer too, especially anything that has to do with learning about Zahra.
You should post us a picture, if you can. I'd love to see your character + Zahra.
I thought I had, but looking back, there are only screenshots taken in first-person of Zahra. The only one that shows both of them is a bit bogus, as she's wearing armour (which she doesn't). I have more one picture of player+housecarl, but that was from another game with a female PC. They were the models for the pictures in the mod documentation, but those are all solo shots, and they both have outfits they never used in the story.
I'll want to add pictures to their story on my own site, so reloading their game and shooting some is on the to-do list.
I'll want to add pictures to their story on my own site, so reloading their game and shooting some is on the to-do list.
Acadian: We'll be giving Bre a way to understand it first-hand.
Renee: Here's a picture of Kothet and Zahra on the platform at the top of their tower. I had to fiddle with it a lot in post-production, as I wanted them in shadow to let the glowing eyes show, but then you couldn't see the rest of them!
----------
Previously: Kothet and Zahra helped Brelyna fetch the books from Fellglow Keep.
----------
39 - Study
Brelyna wanted to study the books before she took them back to the College. If for no other reason than to determine why Orthorn chose these three in particular. They all had some connection with "the elves" but it looked like they were all written by men, and ones that didn't make any distinction between Altmer, and Bosmer, and Dunmer. Of course, some of it was historical, and those divisions hadn't been quite the same in those days. The Dunmer were Chimer then, and the Ayleids were still around.
Elven history may just have been Othorn's own area of study, rather than anything else. It could also, of course, have been what brought him into contact with the Caller in the first place, and if he was as infatuated with her as Brelyna presumed, then he'd expect her to have an interest in the same books.
"We did find them all in her chamber," Zahra pointed out. "He got that much right, at least."
---
We ended up back at our tower. That was the place Zahra and I felt most comfortable, and it was secluded enough for Brelyna to study in peace. When we arrived, Zahra and I changed into our usual house-robes, and turned to see Brelyna rummaging in her satchel for a change of clothes.
She pulled a five-foot staff out of the ten-inch square satchel and peered into its depths. then she reached deep down into it and pulled out a piece of soft, but wrinkled silk.
Zahra was looking on incredulously. "You're a conjurer, and you still do that by hand?"
It seemed she was just as surprised that Brelyna let her clothes get all messed up at the bottom of the bag, too.
Brelyna explained that she'd put all her effort into summoning atronachs as allies. "They can buy me the time to find the right staff for the circumstances, so it's more effective that way."
Zahra wasn't convinced. The little magic it took to swap your equipment, whether that was your outfit, or your weapons, was always worth spending first, before you started summoning allies, or casting fireballs. "Do you at least know the spells to do that?"
Brelyna admitted she'd never learned them, because others had taken priority.
"Then we should do something about that. A conjurer will find these easy to learn."
---
It appeared that Brelyna wasn't easily trained. She had a good understanding of magical principles, but needed to practice a lot before spells went according to plan.
"So what exactly did you just do?" Zahra asked her.
"I took off my College robes, put them in the bag, pulled out the silk one, and put it on." Brelyna answered. "What did I do wrong?"
"Those were all the right steps, but in the wrong order," Zahra explained. "Even with magic, it takes time for it all to happen, so between taking off the one set of clothes, and putting on the other, you're not wearing anything. And I mean nothing. Don't you have any underwear? Or are you just doing that to tease Kothet?"
I didn't mind being teased like that. Really. But I didn't say anything. Apparently I didn't have to.
"Look what you've done to him already," Zahra said, pointing at me.
If I'd still been wearing my armour, they wouldn't have noticed, although it would have been rather uncomfortable in that rigid shell.
"First, you're going to get that spell right, and then you're going to do something about Kothet," Zahra told her, in a stern voice that I knew she was using to avoid laughing out loud. "Now, first you summon out the replacement outfit .. go on, do it ... then you swap what you're wearing .. now do that ... and then you put the other one away again."
It took quite a few minutes of practice before Brelyna did it consistently right. So I got teased a few more times, and by the time Zahra decided she'd done enough spell-casting, I was ready for something else.
"Now you should see to Kothet," Zahra told Brelyna.
"Should 1? I mean, may I? What about you?"
"Just get on with it before I change my mind."
---
Perhaps it was being back at our tower that gave Zahra the idea. "You remember the book you found here; the one that taught you to summon me?"
How could I forget? That was the best thing that ever happened to me, or at least the means to get it.
"Well, you may also remember that you had alternatives, and obviously chose the right one for you. But the others were real options, and there are two other dremora that were ready to come here if you made the wrong choice."
I think I detected a slight bias in the way she was describing it, but she was right.
"Let me try something," Zahra said, and began to concentrate. "There, back on the side-table."
I looked over, and saw what looked like the same book, back where I'd found it.
"It won't work for you again. You already read it, so you can't learn the spell twice. But Brelyna hasn't read it ... She'll have a different perspective when she chooses, too."
Brelyna didn't quite understand. She didn't know what the book was about, after all, but she was at least familar with the way spell-tomes worked.
"Oh wow! A new summoning spell! And I get a choice, too."
"Before you do, indulge my curiosity," I asked her. "I got three options, and chose Zahra. What choices are you getting?"
"Just two. Male, or Female. What would a third option have been?"
"Well when I had the choice, there were two female options: ally or companion. I was confident enough in my combat abilities to know which would be preferable."
"Does that mean that the male option might be a bit ... er ... unsuited to my tastes?"
"Just that he'd be primarily a fighter, and you'll have to train him yourself for anything else," Zahra assured her.
"You'll have no difficulty with that," I added. "but I do need to expand on that point. When you summon him, you won't be getting a fully-trained Valkynaz, encased in a complete set of daedric armour, like the summoning spell you've been aspiring to. He'll be a lesser rank, and ready to grow with you. When I summoned Zahra the first time, she didn't know a fraction of the spells she does now."
We'd obviously convinced her, as the book disappeared, and she eagerly cast her new spell.
We hadn't yet mentioned that where you cast it was important, so we had to deal with his initial disorientation. He - his name was Ranyu - was expecting to defend his new mistress from some imminent danger, and was not ready to find himself naked in someone's bedroom. At least everyone else was naked, too, and apparently not hostile.
I must say he handled it rather well. Especially as he had the further complication of being in the presence of a higher-ranking member of the Kyn, and having to reconcile his duties to his mistress with deference to me, and Zahra, as my companion. Still, I wish my introduction to Tamriel had been anything like this!
Renee: Here's a picture of Kothet and Zahra on the platform at the top of their tower. I had to fiddle with it a lot in post-production, as I wanted them in shadow to let the glowing eyes show, but then you couldn't see the rest of them!
----------
Previously: Kothet and Zahra helped Brelyna fetch the books from Fellglow Keep.
----------
39 - Study
Brelyna wanted to study the books before she took them back to the College. If for no other reason than to determine why Orthorn chose these three in particular. They all had some connection with "the elves" but it looked like they were all written by men, and ones that didn't make any distinction between Altmer, and Bosmer, and Dunmer. Of course, some of it was historical, and those divisions hadn't been quite the same in those days. The Dunmer were Chimer then, and the Ayleids were still around.
Elven history may just have been Othorn's own area of study, rather than anything else. It could also, of course, have been what brought him into contact with the Caller in the first place, and if he was as infatuated with her as Brelyna presumed, then he'd expect her to have an interest in the same books.
"We did find them all in her chamber," Zahra pointed out. "He got that much right, at least."
---
We ended up back at our tower. That was the place Zahra and I felt most comfortable, and it was secluded enough for Brelyna to study in peace. When we arrived, Zahra and I changed into our usual house-robes, and turned to see Brelyna rummaging in her satchel for a change of clothes.
She pulled a five-foot staff out of the ten-inch square satchel and peered into its depths. then she reached deep down into it and pulled out a piece of soft, but wrinkled silk.
Zahra was looking on incredulously. "You're a conjurer, and you still do that by hand?"
It seemed she was just as surprised that Brelyna let her clothes get all messed up at the bottom of the bag, too.
Brelyna explained that she'd put all her effort into summoning atronachs as allies. "They can buy me the time to find the right staff for the circumstances, so it's more effective that way."
Zahra wasn't convinced. The little magic it took to swap your equipment, whether that was your outfit, or your weapons, was always worth spending first, before you started summoning allies, or casting fireballs. "Do you at least know the spells to do that?"
Brelyna admitted she'd never learned them, because others had taken priority.
"Then we should do something about that. A conjurer will find these easy to learn."
---
It appeared that Brelyna wasn't easily trained. She had a good understanding of magical principles, but needed to practice a lot before spells went according to plan.
"So what exactly did you just do?" Zahra asked her.
"I took off my College robes, put them in the bag, pulled out the silk one, and put it on." Brelyna answered. "What did I do wrong?"
"Those were all the right steps, but in the wrong order," Zahra explained. "Even with magic, it takes time for it all to happen, so between taking off the one set of clothes, and putting on the other, you're not wearing anything. And I mean nothing. Don't you have any underwear? Or are you just doing that to tease Kothet?"
I didn't mind being teased like that. Really. But I didn't say anything. Apparently I didn't have to.
"Look what you've done to him already," Zahra said, pointing at me.
If I'd still been wearing my armour, they wouldn't have noticed, although it would have been rather uncomfortable in that rigid shell.
"First, you're going to get that spell right, and then you're going to do something about Kothet," Zahra told her, in a stern voice that I knew she was using to avoid laughing out loud. "Now, first you summon out the replacement outfit .. go on, do it ... then you swap what you're wearing .. now do that ... and then you put the other one away again."
It took quite a few minutes of practice before Brelyna did it consistently right. So I got teased a few more times, and by the time Zahra decided she'd done enough spell-casting, I was ready for something else.
"Now you should see to Kothet," Zahra told Brelyna.
"Should 1? I mean, may I? What about you?"
"Just get on with it before I change my mind."
---
Perhaps it was being back at our tower that gave Zahra the idea. "You remember the book you found here; the one that taught you to summon me?"
How could I forget? That was the best thing that ever happened to me, or at least the means to get it.
"Well, you may also remember that you had alternatives, and obviously chose the right one for you. But the others were real options, and there are two other dremora that were ready to come here if you made the wrong choice."
I think I detected a slight bias in the way she was describing it, but she was right.
"Let me try something," Zahra said, and began to concentrate. "There, back on the side-table."
I looked over, and saw what looked like the same book, back where I'd found it.
"It won't work for you again. You already read it, so you can't learn the spell twice. But Brelyna hasn't read it ... She'll have a different perspective when she chooses, too."
Brelyna didn't quite understand. She didn't know what the book was about, after all, but she was at least familar with the way spell-tomes worked.
"Oh wow! A new summoning spell! And I get a choice, too."
"Before you do, indulge my curiosity," I asked her. "I got three options, and chose Zahra. What choices are you getting?"
"Just two. Male, or Female. What would a third option have been?"
"Well when I had the choice, there were two female options: ally or companion. I was confident enough in my combat abilities to know which would be preferable."
"Does that mean that the male option might be a bit ... er ... unsuited to my tastes?"
"Just that he'd be primarily a fighter, and you'll have to train him yourself for anything else," Zahra assured her.
"You'll have no difficulty with that," I added. "but I do need to expand on that point. When you summon him, you won't be getting a fully-trained Valkynaz, encased in a complete set of daedric armour, like the summoning spell you've been aspiring to. He'll be a lesser rank, and ready to grow with you. When I summoned Zahra the first time, she didn't know a fraction of the spells she does now."
We'd obviously convinced her, as the book disappeared, and she eagerly cast her new spell.
We hadn't yet mentioned that where you cast it was important, so we had to deal with his initial disorientation. He - his name was Ranyu - was expecting to defend his new mistress from some imminent danger, and was not ready to find himself naked in someone's bedroom. At least everyone else was naked, too, and apparently not hostile.
I must say he handled it rather well. Especially as he had the further complication of being in the presence of a higher-ranking member of the Kyn, and having to reconcile his duties to his mistress with deference to me, and Zahra, as my companion. Still, I wish my introduction to Tamriel had been anything like this!
Previously: Brelyna learned to summon her own dremora, and she likes him.
----------
40 - Ranyu
We found out the following day that he was an archer. He wore the lightest of dremora armour, which delighted Brelyna, as she got to see his muscles all the time. I recalled when I was hoping I had that effect on Zahra. That wasn't all that long ago. How far we'd come in so little time!
The women sent us out hunting for fresh meat. Ranyu would probably do most of the work with his bow, but I had one, too, and knew my way around better than he did. We could stay in the hills, and hunt goats, or go down to the valley, and look for deer. I asked before we left which we needed, as that would give me an idea how long they wanted us gone.
Naturally, the first creature we encountered was a cave bear, and I had to summon my heavy armour and war-hammer for that. Bear meat's not the best, and we had enough pelts, so we just took the claws. They're light, and Brelyna would know if she wanted them for alchemy. I couldn't remember what they were used for, as it was a long time since I made any potions.
I think that was the last kill I made that day. Ranyu could see farther than I could, and was more accurate with his bow. I drew a heavier one than he did, but once you have enough strength to make the kill, anything else is wasted. I used mine for combat, not hunting, so I didn't much care.
And I could carry more of the meat and horns, so I did. When we got back, it looked like he was the hunter, and I was just the porter. Brelyna apparently thought so, anyway.
---
Zahra had been talking to Brelyna about how she'd have to adapt to Ranyu. She wouldn't be able to summon an atronach without sending him back, so she had to lose that habit quickly. And then there was the problem with her accommodations at the College, and the lack of privacy. With her Dunmer proclivities, and his eagerness to impress his new mistress, nobody wanted her to get thrown out for being disruptive.
Brelyna didn't think she'd be spending much time at the College, anyway. She had the impression that the orb that they'd found at Saarthal was going to become her main item of study, whether she wanted that or not. She'd been sent on this mission to fetch the books already, and was expecting more of the same when she got back. Which should be soon, or the Archmage would be getting annoyed with her.
"I can teleport myself back to Winterhold, but will Ranyu go with me?" she asked.
"If I don't, just summon me when you get there. That's what the spell's for," he reminded her.
I pointed out that Winterhold was a lot colder than here, so they'd both better remember to cover up a bit before they left.
"And remember how to cast that spell properly," Zahra added. "You don't need to tease him."
---
"There was something different about Brelyna , when we got back from hunting, but I can't quite put my finger on it." I looked at Zahra with a questioning expression.
"New hairstyle, for one. She wears a mages's hood most of the time for the enchantment, and so she wants a style under that which won't let it tangle. But when she takes it off, she wants a different style that looks good. So I taught her how to use alteration magic to change it."
"You're becoming quite the teacher. Should I take you to the College, and get you a job there?"
"Then the lack of private quarters would be our problem, as well as Brelyna's, wouldn't it? And I prefer the job I have, and I like it well enough here."
---
We had a visit from Paarthurnax a few days later. He was concerned about the "disturbance in the currents of time" that he could feel. He didn't have a clear picture of what was going on, but it involved me, and a lot of magic, and probably that Dunmer girl, Brelyna, and the College.
So her re-appearance on our doorstep at the end of the week wasn't a complete surprise. The pair of them looked different. Ranyu had a light cuirass on, apparently no longer needing to display to her, and she had a new robe, that didn't look like College issue.
And no hood, so her hair was more attractive than usual. She noticed me noticing, and explained.
"When I got back to the College, I found a Psijic monk waiting to speak with me. A real one, not a mystic vision. And after he had, I found this robe hanging in my wardrobe. It's got a much stronger enchantment than the College one, so I don't need to wear a hood any more. And the design on it is similar to the ones the Psijic was wearing, so I think he brought for me.
"Anyway, the monk told me to go talk to the Augur of Dunlain, who was down in the crypts under the College, and he sent me back to the Archmage, who sent me to Mirabelle, who sent me to Mzulft."
"And when did you find time to learn that new hairstyle?" Zahra asked her.
Brelyna looked a bit embarrassed about that. "It was supposed to be the style you taught me, but I got it wrong. Ranyu said he liked it better this way, so I kept it."
"But you've already been to this Mzulft and back?" I asked.
"Yes, but that accounts for just about all the time since we were here last. Everything else happened in the College itself, including the explosion that killed the Archmage."
"That sounds like things are getting serious. Paarthurnax' premonitions were right."
I had to explain who Paarthurnax was. I'd probably mentioned him to Brelyna before, but Ranyu needed to know, too.
And Brelyna needed to explain to us about the Eye of Magnus, and Ancano, and all the rest of it. She was full of praise for Ranyu's archery against the malevolent magical anomalies that had been spawned by the release of energy from the Eye. And he was just as effusive about her staff-wielding.
But they both felt that the next mission needed reinforcements. The Staff of Magnus, which was apparently powerful enough to control the magic of the Eye, was buried in Labyrinthian, guarded by who knows what.
"We hoped that you two would join us," Brelyna pleaded. "I've been learning frost spells, since I won't have a frost atronach for that, and this robe lets me use stronger wards and armour spells. But although I have one of the best possible archers by my side, or behind me, wherever he's supposed to be, I could still use help with melee and fire magic."
We took a lot of persuading. Not because we were reluctant, but because ...
----------
40 - Ranyu
We found out the following day that he was an archer. He wore the lightest of dremora armour, which delighted Brelyna, as she got to see his muscles all the time. I recalled when I was hoping I had that effect on Zahra. That wasn't all that long ago. How far we'd come in so little time!
The women sent us out hunting for fresh meat. Ranyu would probably do most of the work with his bow, but I had one, too, and knew my way around better than he did. We could stay in the hills, and hunt goats, or go down to the valley, and look for deer. I asked before we left which we needed, as that would give me an idea how long they wanted us gone.
Naturally, the first creature we encountered was a cave bear, and I had to summon my heavy armour and war-hammer for that. Bear meat's not the best, and we had enough pelts, so we just took the claws. They're light, and Brelyna would know if she wanted them for alchemy. I couldn't remember what they were used for, as it was a long time since I made any potions.
I think that was the last kill I made that day. Ranyu could see farther than I could, and was more accurate with his bow. I drew a heavier one than he did, but once you have enough strength to make the kill, anything else is wasted. I used mine for combat, not hunting, so I didn't much care.
And I could carry more of the meat and horns, so I did. When we got back, it looked like he was the hunter, and I was just the porter. Brelyna apparently thought so, anyway.
---
Zahra had been talking to Brelyna about how she'd have to adapt to Ranyu. She wouldn't be able to summon an atronach without sending him back, so she had to lose that habit quickly. And then there was the problem with her accommodations at the College, and the lack of privacy. With her Dunmer proclivities, and his eagerness to impress his new mistress, nobody wanted her to get thrown out for being disruptive.
Brelyna didn't think she'd be spending much time at the College, anyway. She had the impression that the orb that they'd found at Saarthal was going to become her main item of study, whether she wanted that or not. She'd been sent on this mission to fetch the books already, and was expecting more of the same when she got back. Which should be soon, or the Archmage would be getting annoyed with her.
"I can teleport myself back to Winterhold, but will Ranyu go with me?" she asked.
"If I don't, just summon me when you get there. That's what the spell's for," he reminded her.
I pointed out that Winterhold was a lot colder than here, so they'd both better remember to cover up a bit before they left.
"And remember how to cast that spell properly," Zahra added. "You don't need to tease him."
---
"There was something different about Brelyna , when we got back from hunting, but I can't quite put my finger on it." I looked at Zahra with a questioning expression.
"New hairstyle, for one. She wears a mages's hood most of the time for the enchantment, and so she wants a style under that which won't let it tangle. But when she takes it off, she wants a different style that looks good. So I taught her how to use alteration magic to change it."
"You're becoming quite the teacher. Should I take you to the College, and get you a job there?"
"Then the lack of private quarters would be our problem, as well as Brelyna's, wouldn't it? And I prefer the job I have, and I like it well enough here."
---
We had a visit from Paarthurnax a few days later. He was concerned about the "disturbance in the currents of time" that he could feel. He didn't have a clear picture of what was going on, but it involved me, and a lot of magic, and probably that Dunmer girl, Brelyna, and the College.
So her re-appearance on our doorstep at the end of the week wasn't a complete surprise. The pair of them looked different. Ranyu had a light cuirass on, apparently no longer needing to display to her, and she had a new robe, that didn't look like College issue.
And no hood, so her hair was more attractive than usual. She noticed me noticing, and explained.
"When I got back to the College, I found a Psijic monk waiting to speak with me. A real one, not a mystic vision. And after he had, I found this robe hanging in my wardrobe. It's got a much stronger enchantment than the College one, so I don't need to wear a hood any more. And the design on it is similar to the ones the Psijic was wearing, so I think he brought for me.
"Anyway, the monk told me to go talk to the Augur of Dunlain, who was down in the crypts under the College, and he sent me back to the Archmage, who sent me to Mirabelle, who sent me to Mzulft."
"And when did you find time to learn that new hairstyle?" Zahra asked her.
Brelyna looked a bit embarrassed about that. "It was supposed to be the style you taught me, but I got it wrong. Ranyu said he liked it better this way, so I kept it."
"But you've already been to this Mzulft and back?" I asked.
"Yes, but that accounts for just about all the time since we were here last. Everything else happened in the College itself, including the explosion that killed the Archmage."
"That sounds like things are getting serious. Paarthurnax' premonitions were right."
I had to explain who Paarthurnax was. I'd probably mentioned him to Brelyna before, but Ranyu needed to know, too.
And Brelyna needed to explain to us about the Eye of Magnus, and Ancano, and all the rest of it. She was full of praise for Ranyu's archery against the malevolent magical anomalies that had been spawned by the release of energy from the Eye. And he was just as effusive about her staff-wielding.
But they both felt that the next mission needed reinforcements. The Staff of Magnus, which was apparently powerful enough to control the magic of the Eye, was buried in Labyrinthian, guarded by who knows what.
"We hoped that you two would join us," Brelyna pleaded. "I've been learning frost spells, since I won't have a frost atronach for that, and this robe lets me use stronger wards and armour spells. But although I have one of the best possible archers by my side, or behind me, wherever he's supposed to be, I could still use help with melee and fire magic."
We took a lot of persuading. Not because we were reluctant, but because ...
Not sure how I missed an episode but catching up now. Thanks for the screenshot of the Dremoric Duo! Their appearance leaves no doubt that they hail from the other side of the planar vortex.
Yay, Bre got a Dremora BoyToyArcher of her own and (finally, thankfully) a more becoming hairstyle. And wardrobe conjuring is a skill every young lady needs! Nice how we learn that the MG questline has progressed.
Wow, Bre, Ranyu, Kothet and Zahra would be quite the fearsome foursome!
Yay, Bre got a Dremora BoyToyArcher of her own and (finally, thankfully) a more becoming hairstyle. And wardrobe conjuring is a skill every young lady needs! Nice how we learn that the MG questline has progressed.
Wow, Bre, Ranyu, Kothet and Zahra would be quite the fearsome foursome!
Acadian: Yes, they're a well-balanced team, with a bit of everything, as well as a good opportunity to compare Kothet/Zahra against Brelyna/Ranyu.
--------------
Previously: Ranyu had demonstrated his archery prowess during a hunting expedition, while the women talked hairstyles and clothes and other women stuff. Paarthurnax warned of troubles ahead, and Brelyna returned to confirm them.
--------------
41 - Labyrinthian
Brelyna had a strange torc that was supposed to be the key to opening the main door, so that's where we headed. A couple of frost trolls decided they wanted to stop us, but then they decided they didn't like fireballs and tried to run off again. Ranyu made up their minds for them with a couple of long-range arrows.
The torc fit into a curved slot on the door, and the ends connected with something that opened the door for us. It was rather Dwemer-like in its operation, but we didn't see any of their characteristic metal used anywhere, so it can't have been. Perhaps the ancient Nords learned something from them. That might account for the blade traps in some of these ruins, too.
The large hall we entered had a few glowing figures standing at one end, which appeared to be the ghosts of a group of mages that had come here looking for treasure. In particular magical artifacts that were rumoured to have been buried here in the age of the dragons. I started to suspect we'd be meeting one of those dragon priests.
We went a bit farther down the corridor, and found a closed gate with a lever nearby. I operated the lever, and the gate raised up, revealing a few skeltons patrolling a large hall. Ranyu fired his bow at the most distant one, to see if anything was lying in wait beyond the gate, to ambush anything coming through. We expected to see skeletons moving in from the sides to investigate, but we weren't expecting a skeletal dragon to rise up from the middle of the hall.
The gate fell again, just in time to block its icy breath. Since I was the one without a major ranged attack, I manned the lever, while the others prepared to send fireballs, arrows and lightning through the gate when I opened it.
"Ready? Three, two, one, now!"
The few skeletons that had approached the gate were either destroyed or knocked back by our attack, and unable to regroup before the gate fell again. This was worth repeating.
Pretty soon, the only adversary left was the dragon. It was way too large to reach through the gate, so its only means of attack was its frost breath. By taunting it into blasting the closed gate, we could open it while it regained its powers, and not be in any danger ourselves as we attacked.
We met up again with the party of ghosts. It seemed that there were fewer of them, and we heard one remark that they'd lost one of their number to the dragon. I wondered if it had been a live one when they came through, or undead even then.
In the Labyrinthian Chasm, my suspicions of a dragon priest were born out. A voice speaking in the dragon tongue, but not a dovah's voice, addressed us. A swirl of light enveloped us, and the women complained of having their magicka drained. I suppose it happened to all of us, but Ranyu and I are less concerned at that.
Brelyna's magicka was rapidly returning, thanks to the enchantment on her robe, but Zahra was not so lucky. Brelyna handed her a potion from her satchel, but she told her to keep it for later. We'd just wait here a little longer before we advanced.
As if to try and convince us otherwise, a frost spirit advanced from a frost-covered doorway to attack us. It was easily defeated, but some of Zahra's almost-depleted magicka had to be spent on a flames spell to open the door behind it.
And immediately after we passed through the doorway, the same draining happened again. The draugr we encountered didn't seem to have been drained, but their frost spells weren't a match for the war-hammer and bow the drain couldn't affect. And Brelyna had enough magicka back to cast some frost of her own. She handed her lightning staff to Zahra, and they both joined in.
The same would happen again as we descended, but somewhere along the way the voice switched to "this gutteral language of yours" and everyone could understand it. It seemed to believe we were Savos Aren, the late Archmage, come back to finish what he'd started.
The wispmother was a bit of an obstacle, especially with our fire-mage restricted by the fequent draining, but we passed her to encounter a flame spirit at a burning door.
---
Beyond this point, the draugr were spectral, and the traps began. Rune traps, spell-casting gems, fall traps in the floor. I used my Become Ethereal shout to clear them for my companions, but they slowed our progress nonetheless.
The dragon priest drained our magicka again, and Zahra was losing her patience. "I think I can see steam coming out of your ears, " I told her. Ranyu joined in with "Oh, no, won't her boobies deflate if the steam gets out?" We waited until her magicka regenerated, telling "My woman's so hot ..." jokes until Zahra couldn't keep a straight face any more. "Do you think Brelyna's are steam-powered?" I asked.
"Oh, no," Zahra replied. "I've seen Ranyu blowing them up the regular way."
We opened the doors before us to see a throne at the bottom of a flight of stairs, facing away from us, and towards a word wall. As we started down the stairs, a spectral draugr carrying a large axe rose out of the throne and headed up the stairs.
By the time he reached me, he'd been hit by a fireball (which had eliminated his Spectral Warhound companion), a blast of Shock from Brelyna, and several arrows. One blow of my war-hammer sent his bones cascading back down the stairs.
The word wall taught me a word of Slow Time, and we turned towards a corridor lined with columns.
"Wait a moment," Zahra requested. "This looks like one of those situations where that annoying dragon priest will do his drain thing again, and I'd like to get one step ahead of him."
She sent a huge fireball down the corridor, and several burning draugr emerged from behind the columns to confront us. As expected, the draining spell met us as we entered the corridor, but this time, we were ready. Zahra had Brelyna's staff, and Brelyna was using a cheap flames spell to capitalize on the fires Zahra had already started. She was regenerating her magicka faster than she was using it, so her depleted supply mattered little.
---
The party of ghosts we were following were down to only three now. One of them remarked that the final trial lay beyond the next door. "We're not going to make it, are we?" she asked Aren's ghost.
"We will if we stick together," he assured her. "and where else can we go but onward?"
---
We passed through the door to find a large chamber where two enthralled mages were holding an energy shield surrounding the dragon priest. It wasn't clear to me if they were protecting him or confining him. I suspected there wasn't a lot of difference, as we couldn't reach him, until the shield was stopped.
Trying to speak with the mages just turned them against us, and they stopped casting the spell that maintained the shield. I regretted having to kill them, but had no choice.
"No, I won't" Ranyu shouted, and he dropped his bow and ran back out of the room.
"Morokei's trying to control us," Zahra explained, as she, too ran after Ranyu.
Since he couldn't take over our summons, he produced one of his own, a Storm Atronach. It wasn't close to us, so I ignored it and ran to attack the priest directly with my war-hammer. Since he was using mostly anti-mage spells, I figured that his weakness would be plain old blunt force.
I wasn't wrong. He fled, and I was soon chasing him all around the chamber, while Brelyna, who had dealt with the stormie, took pot-shots at him with her staff. That made him maintain a ward, which stopped him using much of his own spells. He did, however, still have a staff of his own, and was using it whenever he got the chance.
The strange thing is that it didn't seem to harm me in any way. Maybe he was just draining the magicka I wasn't trying to use. With no effective offence, he was soon cornered, and beaten out of existence with my hammer.
Brelyna confirmed my theory about the staff. It was likely the source of the spell he'd used against us all the way in. The mask he wore was almost its antidote, providing 100 percent increase in magicka regeneration.
"Nice, if it wasn't so ugly" she remarked.
Zahra and Ranyu rejoined us, and we searched the room for any other items we might need. Brelyna was certain that she'd found the Staff she came for, but Morokei might have gathered other treasures.
We met Savos Aren's ghost once more on the way out, apologising to his abandoned comrades, and promising that their sacrifice was worth it.
And then we met a live one. A Thalmor mage named Estormo, who'd been sent by Ancano to make sure Brelyna didn't get back with the Staff. We let him make his little speech before Ranyu put an arrow through his throat, to make sure he didn't repeat it.
Brelyna tried to cast her teleport spell to go back to the College, but it wouldn't work. "We can reach Winterhold, though."
"We'd probably best all go with you, in that case," said Zahra. "Who knows what this Ancano is up to, if he has the College blocked off."
--------------
Previously: Ranyu had demonstrated his archery prowess during a hunting expedition, while the women talked hairstyles and clothes and other women stuff. Paarthurnax warned of troubles ahead, and Brelyna returned to confirm them.
--------------
41 - Labyrinthian
Brelyna had a strange torc that was supposed to be the key to opening the main door, so that's where we headed. A couple of frost trolls decided they wanted to stop us, but then they decided they didn't like fireballs and tried to run off again. Ranyu made up their minds for them with a couple of long-range arrows.
The torc fit into a curved slot on the door, and the ends connected with something that opened the door for us. It was rather Dwemer-like in its operation, but we didn't see any of their characteristic metal used anywhere, so it can't have been. Perhaps the ancient Nords learned something from them. That might account for the blade traps in some of these ruins, too.
The large hall we entered had a few glowing figures standing at one end, which appeared to be the ghosts of a group of mages that had come here looking for treasure. In particular magical artifacts that were rumoured to have been buried here in the age of the dragons. I started to suspect we'd be meeting one of those dragon priests.
We went a bit farther down the corridor, and found a closed gate with a lever nearby. I operated the lever, and the gate raised up, revealing a few skeltons patrolling a large hall. Ranyu fired his bow at the most distant one, to see if anything was lying in wait beyond the gate, to ambush anything coming through. We expected to see skeletons moving in from the sides to investigate, but we weren't expecting a skeletal dragon to rise up from the middle of the hall.
The gate fell again, just in time to block its icy breath. Since I was the one without a major ranged attack, I manned the lever, while the others prepared to send fireballs, arrows and lightning through the gate when I opened it.
"Ready? Three, two, one, now!"
The few skeletons that had approached the gate were either destroyed or knocked back by our attack, and unable to regroup before the gate fell again. This was worth repeating.
Pretty soon, the only adversary left was the dragon. It was way too large to reach through the gate, so its only means of attack was its frost breath. By taunting it into blasting the closed gate, we could open it while it regained its powers, and not be in any danger ourselves as we attacked.
We met up again with the party of ghosts. It seemed that there were fewer of them, and we heard one remark that they'd lost one of their number to the dragon. I wondered if it had been a live one when they came through, or undead even then.
In the Labyrinthian Chasm, my suspicions of a dragon priest were born out. A voice speaking in the dragon tongue, but not a dovah's voice, addressed us. A swirl of light enveloped us, and the women complained of having their magicka drained. I suppose it happened to all of us, but Ranyu and I are less concerned at that.
Brelyna's magicka was rapidly returning, thanks to the enchantment on her robe, but Zahra was not so lucky. Brelyna handed her a potion from her satchel, but she told her to keep it for later. We'd just wait here a little longer before we advanced.
As if to try and convince us otherwise, a frost spirit advanced from a frost-covered doorway to attack us. It was easily defeated, but some of Zahra's almost-depleted magicka had to be spent on a flames spell to open the door behind it.
And immediately after we passed through the doorway, the same draining happened again. The draugr we encountered didn't seem to have been drained, but their frost spells weren't a match for the war-hammer and bow the drain couldn't affect. And Brelyna had enough magicka back to cast some frost of her own. She handed her lightning staff to Zahra, and they both joined in.
The same would happen again as we descended, but somewhere along the way the voice switched to "this gutteral language of yours" and everyone could understand it. It seemed to believe we were Savos Aren, the late Archmage, come back to finish what he'd started.
The wispmother was a bit of an obstacle, especially with our fire-mage restricted by the fequent draining, but we passed her to encounter a flame spirit at a burning door.
---
Beyond this point, the draugr were spectral, and the traps began. Rune traps, spell-casting gems, fall traps in the floor. I used my Become Ethereal shout to clear them for my companions, but they slowed our progress nonetheless.
The dragon priest drained our magicka again, and Zahra was losing her patience. "I think I can see steam coming out of your ears, " I told her. Ranyu joined in with "Oh, no, won't her boobies deflate if the steam gets out?" We waited until her magicka regenerated, telling "My woman's so hot ..." jokes until Zahra couldn't keep a straight face any more. "Do you think Brelyna's are steam-powered?" I asked.
"Oh, no," Zahra replied. "I've seen Ranyu blowing them up the regular way."
We opened the doors before us to see a throne at the bottom of a flight of stairs, facing away from us, and towards a word wall. As we started down the stairs, a spectral draugr carrying a large axe rose out of the throne and headed up the stairs.
By the time he reached me, he'd been hit by a fireball (which had eliminated his Spectral Warhound companion), a blast of Shock from Brelyna, and several arrows. One blow of my war-hammer sent his bones cascading back down the stairs.
The word wall taught me a word of Slow Time, and we turned towards a corridor lined with columns.
"Wait a moment," Zahra requested. "This looks like one of those situations where that annoying dragon priest will do his drain thing again, and I'd like to get one step ahead of him."
She sent a huge fireball down the corridor, and several burning draugr emerged from behind the columns to confront us. As expected, the draining spell met us as we entered the corridor, but this time, we were ready. Zahra had Brelyna's staff, and Brelyna was using a cheap flames spell to capitalize on the fires Zahra had already started. She was regenerating her magicka faster than she was using it, so her depleted supply mattered little.
---
The party of ghosts we were following were down to only three now. One of them remarked that the final trial lay beyond the next door. "We're not going to make it, are we?" she asked Aren's ghost.
"We will if we stick together," he assured her. "and where else can we go but onward?"
---
We passed through the door to find a large chamber where two enthralled mages were holding an energy shield surrounding the dragon priest. It wasn't clear to me if they were protecting him or confining him. I suspected there wasn't a lot of difference, as we couldn't reach him, until the shield was stopped.
Trying to speak with the mages just turned them against us, and they stopped casting the spell that maintained the shield. I regretted having to kill them, but had no choice.
"No, I won't" Ranyu shouted, and he dropped his bow and ran back out of the room.
"Morokei's trying to control us," Zahra explained, as she, too ran after Ranyu.
Since he couldn't take over our summons, he produced one of his own, a Storm Atronach. It wasn't close to us, so I ignored it and ran to attack the priest directly with my war-hammer. Since he was using mostly anti-mage spells, I figured that his weakness would be plain old blunt force.
I wasn't wrong. He fled, and I was soon chasing him all around the chamber, while Brelyna, who had dealt with the stormie, took pot-shots at him with her staff. That made him maintain a ward, which stopped him using much of his own spells. He did, however, still have a staff of his own, and was using it whenever he got the chance.
The strange thing is that it didn't seem to harm me in any way. Maybe he was just draining the magicka I wasn't trying to use. With no effective offence, he was soon cornered, and beaten out of existence with my hammer.
Brelyna confirmed my theory about the staff. It was likely the source of the spell he'd used against us all the way in. The mask he wore was almost its antidote, providing 100 percent increase in magicka regeneration.
"Nice, if it wasn't so ugly" she remarked.
Zahra and Ranyu rejoined us, and we searched the room for any other items we might need. Brelyna was certain that she'd found the Staff she came for, but Morokei might have gathered other treasures.
We met Savos Aren's ghost once more on the way out, apologising to his abandoned comrades, and promising that their sacrifice was worth it.
And then we met a live one. A Thalmor mage named Estormo, who'd been sent by Ancano to make sure Brelyna didn't get back with the Staff. We let him make his little speech before Ranyu put an arrow through his throat, to make sure he didn't repeat it.
Brelyna tried to cast her teleport spell to go back to the College, but it wouldn't work. "We can reach Winterhold, though."
"We'd probably best all go with you, in that case," said Zahra. "Who knows what this Ancano is up to, if he has the College blocked off."
Well. Brel certainly is blossoming into full NPC-hood. And Kothet is enjoying peeking at her by the sound of it, but now her own summon has garnered some interest. 
My gosh.
I haven't read Labyrinthian yet, but I will. And thanks for posting those pics. I don't think I've ever seen anybody like Zahra, especially.
My gosh. I haven't read Labyrinthian yet, but I will. And thanks for posting those pics. I don't think I've ever seen anybody like Zahra, especially.
A fun dungeon crawl, replete with magicka-draining curses vs steam-powered bewbs! Even a bone dragon. It is fun to see Bre progressing toward what I hope to be her arch mage destiny. 
Renee: Brelyna has always struck me as the appropriate choice for Arch-mage whenever the Player Character doesn't want the job, so she gets it again. (She did that in Clark's story, too.) Giving her a summoned dremora of her own adds a different twist to what she was saying earlier about the relationship between Kothet and Zahra. Now she has to question her own motives, which is probably what Zahra had in mind.
Acadian: It's time for Bre to arrive! Bewbs and all (steam optional).
----------
Previously: The whole troop had been to Labyrinthian to fetch the Staff of Magnus. Now it's time to take it back to Winterhold.
----------
42 - Archmage
We found most of the mages from the College waiting on the bridge, near a magical barrier that seemed to encircle the entire building.
"Ancano's using the Eye," Tolfdir explained. "We don't know exactly how, or what he's trying to do, but we can't get in to stop him. Do you have the Staff?"
Brelyna confirmed that she did and stepped forward to use it on the barrier, hoping it would drain its power as it had done with ours. The barrier disappeared, and we all rushed in.
I handed her a couple of grand soul gems. "Make sure that thing's fully charged. I think we'll be needing it again."
---
We entered the Hall of the Elements, to find Ancano playing a shock spell over the Eye. "I have the power to unmake the world at my fingertips, and you cannot stop me."
Tolfdir flung a firebolt at Ancano, which did absolutely nothing. The Altmer nonchalantly returned a spell of his own, and all of us found ourselves paralyzed. All but Brelyna, who was apparently protected by the Staff she was carrying.
Ancano decided to up the stakes, and changed the spell he was casting on the Eye. It began to come apart, revealing a brilliant light inside it, which meant I was unable to see what happened next.
When I could see again, Brelyna was using the Staff to close the Eye again, and Ancano was busy defending himself from some wisp-like creatures that had apparently been spawned by whatever he did to the Eye. I could feel the paralysis fading, too, and I was soon able to add to his woes. Zahra and Tolfdir were busy defending themselves from more of the wisps, and I couldn't see where Ranyu had gone. Somewhere near the door, I think, as arrows were coming from that direction.
Ancano had apparently run out of magicka, and was trying desperately to fight off the wisp-things with his fists. I stood back and let them finish him off, then made sure the wisps wouldn't bother anyone else.
"What do we do now?" Brelyna asked Tolfdir. The old Master had no clue. "The Eye may be shut down for now, but I have no idea what Ancano did to it."
"Nor do we," replied a voice from behind me. Another Altmer, presumably a Psijic monk, as his robes resembled those that Brelyna was wearing. "It has become unstable, and must be removed from here before it does further damage, to this College, or the world.
"We will safeguard it, until such time that it can be stabilised again. The world is not ready for this kind of power."
He turned to Brelyna and addressed her directly. "You now have the opportunity to rebuild your College, Archmage. I'm sure that's what you wish to do."
And with that, the monk, his two companions, and the Eye, all faded away.
"Why did he call me Archmage?" Brelyna asked.
"I'm unsure," Tolfdir answered, "but I can't think of anyone better suited for the job." He handed her a key. "This will open the Archmages quarters. They're yours now. And you'll find the robes of office there, if you want to use them."
Brelyna was still stunned at this turn of events. She wasn't at all sure she wanted the position, but we persuaded her to at least go and take a look around the quarters before she decided.
---
Now I'm not saying that the only double bed in the College in any way influenced her choice, or the fact that she could lock the door and get as much privacy as she wanted. But the four of us did have a bit of a celebration of our victory, and the bed did survive the onslaught.
Being able to just walk across the room and make another restoring potion when it was needed may have swayed the choice, too. It certainly influenced my recommendation.
Brelyna was still resisting the idea of becoming Archmage, however. She didn't think that she was ready for it. And shouldn't one of the Masters take it?
Zahra wasn't a lot of help there, as she still had the traditional dremora attitude that women should control from behind. "Like Mirabelle probably did with Savos Aren. He was the Archmage, but she ran the College."
"Which meant that she was tied to the place," I replied. "Savos got to travel anywhere he wanted, and perhaps Brelyna would like that freedom."
"There are several other candidates to replace Mirabelle as chief administrator," Brelyna agreed. "And Collete Marence has just about convinced me that if any of the Masters became Archmage, then the other schools of magic would not get their proper respect."
"Doesn't that rule them out for the administrator job as well?" I asked.
"Yes, but I'm actually thinking of giving that to Enthir."
Several eyebrows went up at that.
"It's not as crazy as it seems," I added in support. "We know about him and the Thieves Guild, but nothing straightens a crook out better than giving him responsibility that's in everyone's gaze. He won't have any choice but to play this role straight."
"If he doesn't turn it down," Ranyu reminded me.
"He'll probably grab the opportunity before he sees what he got himself into," Brelyna remarked. "It's just the right trap for someone like him."
"And he'll already know how to juggle the conflicts that will arise. They just won't be the same ones that he's used to," I added.
Brelyna turned to me. "I think you've convinced me. The College needs someone who'll encourage scholarship and research, but be neutral as to school of magic. I'm not tied to any one in particular yet. I started out along the Conjuration path, but I already got my Dremora, so I can branch out a bit.
"I've heard about Master Neloth moving to Solstheim, so I might go over there and see what he's up to. My being Archmage might even persuade him to give me some of his precious time, and teach me some enchanting. Telvanni wizards don't share much with each other at the best of times, but since I'd technically be an outsider as Archmage of Winterhold, at the same time as being a Telvanni myself, things could be different."
---
Tolfdir brought the other mages together in the Hall of the Elements for the announcements. Enthir seemed to be just figuring out what he'd let himself in for, and Faralda and Nirya were taunting each other for their lack of advancement in this shuffle. I'm sure each of them though she should have had the Archmage's job herself. An Altmer thing, if I'm any judge.
Sergius Turrianus and Phinis Gestor were wondering if they'd get promotion to Master, or if Brelyna would be bringing in Masters to replace them. Savos Aren had been content to wait for them to reach that level on their own.
"When I heard you mention going to Solstheim, I was concerned that you were thinking of recruiting Talvas Fathryon as head of Conjuration," Phinis explained. "Of course, I doubt that Neloth would let him go, and I don't know if he'd want to come here."
Sergius didn't seem quite as concerned. We all knew that the Master of Enchantment here on the mainland was quite content as Priestess of Dibella in the Markarth temple, and Neloth was Neloth, going his own way and having no need of the College. Sergius wouldn't mind being allowed to study with Hamal, but it wasn't just Brelyna who 'd make that decision.
"Rank doesn't matter as much as the quality of your research," she told everyone. "Teaching is only part of your jobs. Another part is advancing the knowledge of magic, researching new effects, creating new spells, and testing them safely." She seemed to be looking at Arniel Gane when she said that last part. He looked a little embarrassed, but the rest of us didn't know why.
When Brelyna saw how Zahra was looking at her, she might have blushed a little herself.
Acadian: It's time for Bre to arrive! Bewbs and all (steam optional).
----------
Previously: The whole troop had been to Labyrinthian to fetch the Staff of Magnus. Now it's time to take it back to Winterhold.
----------
42 - Archmage
We found most of the mages from the College waiting on the bridge, near a magical barrier that seemed to encircle the entire building.
"Ancano's using the Eye," Tolfdir explained. "We don't know exactly how, or what he's trying to do, but we can't get in to stop him. Do you have the Staff?"
Brelyna confirmed that she did and stepped forward to use it on the barrier, hoping it would drain its power as it had done with ours. The barrier disappeared, and we all rushed in.
I handed her a couple of grand soul gems. "Make sure that thing's fully charged. I think we'll be needing it again."
---
We entered the Hall of the Elements, to find Ancano playing a shock spell over the Eye. "I have the power to unmake the world at my fingertips, and you cannot stop me."
Tolfdir flung a firebolt at Ancano, which did absolutely nothing. The Altmer nonchalantly returned a spell of his own, and all of us found ourselves paralyzed. All but Brelyna, who was apparently protected by the Staff she was carrying.
Ancano decided to up the stakes, and changed the spell he was casting on the Eye. It began to come apart, revealing a brilliant light inside it, which meant I was unable to see what happened next.
When I could see again, Brelyna was using the Staff to close the Eye again, and Ancano was busy defending himself from some wisp-like creatures that had apparently been spawned by whatever he did to the Eye. I could feel the paralysis fading, too, and I was soon able to add to his woes. Zahra and Tolfdir were busy defending themselves from more of the wisps, and I couldn't see where Ranyu had gone. Somewhere near the door, I think, as arrows were coming from that direction.
Ancano had apparently run out of magicka, and was trying desperately to fight off the wisp-things with his fists. I stood back and let them finish him off, then made sure the wisps wouldn't bother anyone else.
"What do we do now?" Brelyna asked Tolfdir. The old Master had no clue. "The Eye may be shut down for now, but I have no idea what Ancano did to it."
"Nor do we," replied a voice from behind me. Another Altmer, presumably a Psijic monk, as his robes resembled those that Brelyna was wearing. "It has become unstable, and must be removed from here before it does further damage, to this College, or the world.
"We will safeguard it, until such time that it can be stabilised again. The world is not ready for this kind of power."
He turned to Brelyna and addressed her directly. "You now have the opportunity to rebuild your College, Archmage. I'm sure that's what you wish to do."
And with that, the monk, his two companions, and the Eye, all faded away.
"Why did he call me Archmage?" Brelyna asked.
"I'm unsure," Tolfdir answered, "but I can't think of anyone better suited for the job." He handed her a key. "This will open the Archmages quarters. They're yours now. And you'll find the robes of office there, if you want to use them."
Brelyna was still stunned at this turn of events. She wasn't at all sure she wanted the position, but we persuaded her to at least go and take a look around the quarters before she decided.
---
Now I'm not saying that the only double bed in the College in any way influenced her choice, or the fact that she could lock the door and get as much privacy as she wanted. But the four of us did have a bit of a celebration of our victory, and the bed did survive the onslaught.
Being able to just walk across the room and make another restoring potion when it was needed may have swayed the choice, too. It certainly influenced my recommendation.
Brelyna was still resisting the idea of becoming Archmage, however. She didn't think that she was ready for it. And shouldn't one of the Masters take it?
Zahra wasn't a lot of help there, as she still had the traditional dremora attitude that women should control from behind. "Like Mirabelle probably did with Savos Aren. He was the Archmage, but she ran the College."
"Which meant that she was tied to the place," I replied. "Savos got to travel anywhere he wanted, and perhaps Brelyna would like that freedom."
"There are several other candidates to replace Mirabelle as chief administrator," Brelyna agreed. "And Collete Marence has just about convinced me that if any of the Masters became Archmage, then the other schools of magic would not get their proper respect."
"Doesn't that rule them out for the administrator job as well?" I asked.
"Yes, but I'm actually thinking of giving that to Enthir."
Several eyebrows went up at that.
"It's not as crazy as it seems," I added in support. "We know about him and the Thieves Guild, but nothing straightens a crook out better than giving him responsibility that's in everyone's gaze. He won't have any choice but to play this role straight."
"If he doesn't turn it down," Ranyu reminded me.
"He'll probably grab the opportunity before he sees what he got himself into," Brelyna remarked. "It's just the right trap for someone like him."
"And he'll already know how to juggle the conflicts that will arise. They just won't be the same ones that he's used to," I added.
Brelyna turned to me. "I think you've convinced me. The College needs someone who'll encourage scholarship and research, but be neutral as to school of magic. I'm not tied to any one in particular yet. I started out along the Conjuration path, but I already got my Dremora, so I can branch out a bit.
"I've heard about Master Neloth moving to Solstheim, so I might go over there and see what he's up to. My being Archmage might even persuade him to give me some of his precious time, and teach me some enchanting. Telvanni wizards don't share much with each other at the best of times, but since I'd technically be an outsider as Archmage of Winterhold, at the same time as being a Telvanni myself, things could be different."
---
Tolfdir brought the other mages together in the Hall of the Elements for the announcements. Enthir seemed to be just figuring out what he'd let himself in for, and Faralda and Nirya were taunting each other for their lack of advancement in this shuffle. I'm sure each of them though she should have had the Archmage's job herself. An Altmer thing, if I'm any judge.
Sergius Turrianus and Phinis Gestor were wondering if they'd get promotion to Master, or if Brelyna would be bringing in Masters to replace them. Savos Aren had been content to wait for them to reach that level on their own.
"When I heard you mention going to Solstheim, I was concerned that you were thinking of recruiting Talvas Fathryon as head of Conjuration," Phinis explained. "Of course, I doubt that Neloth would let him go, and I don't know if he'd want to come here."
Sergius didn't seem quite as concerned. We all knew that the Master of Enchantment here on the mainland was quite content as Priestess of Dibella in the Markarth temple, and Neloth was Neloth, going his own way and having no need of the College. Sergius wouldn't mind being allowed to study with Hamal, but it wasn't just Brelyna who 'd make that decision.
"Rank doesn't matter as much as the quality of your research," she told everyone. "Teaching is only part of your jobs. Another part is advancing the knowledge of magic, researching new effects, creating new spells, and testing them safely." She seemed to be looking at Arniel Gane when she said that last part. He looked a little embarrassed, but the rest of us didn't know why.
When Brelyna saw how Zahra was looking at her, she might have blushed a little herself.
Yay, congrats to Archmage Brelyna! Nice that Kothet and Zahra joined Bre and Ranyu to help celebrate and break in that double bed.
Methinks Bre is the one who should be embarrassed about testing spells safely. Buffy well remembers being turned green, then transformed into a variety of barnyard animals courtesy of dear Bre.
Please forgive me if I missed it, but at some point did you cover the old Archmage’s death (and Mirabelle’s)? Did that happen at some point prior to the Fearsome Foursome returning to the College and finding Ancano run amok?
Nit- ’I'm sure each of them though{t} she should have had the Archmage's job herself.’ – Missing letter as indicated.
Methinks Bre is the one who should be embarrassed about testing spells safely. Buffy well remembers being turned green, then transformed into a variety of barnyard animals courtesy of dear Bre.
Please forgive me if I missed it, but at some point did you cover the old Archmage’s death (and Mirabelle’s)? Did that happen at some point prior to the Fearsome Foursome returning to the College and finding Ancano run amok?
Nit- ’I'm sure each of them though{t} she should have had the Archmage's job herself.’ – Missing letter as indicated.
Because Kothet and Zahra weren't there when it happened, all they got was:
"Yes, but that accounts for just about all the time since we were here last. Everything else happened in the College itself, including the explosion that killed the Archmage."
"That sounds like things are getting serious. Paarthurnax' premonitions were right."
Since they'd had little or no contact with Savos Aren (at least not the live one) it wasn't as much of an event to them, as it would have been to Brelyna, who was there at the time. And Mirabelle's death is only announced to the player if Tolfdir is asked. She's alive when you set off for Labyrinthian, because she's the one that gives you the torc. Again, Kothet and Zahra hardly know her, and wouldn't ask.
I considered putting in more, but had to wonder why Kothet would know or care about the details. I had to add the Paarthurnax visit to give him a reason to care at all.
"Yes, but that accounts for just about all the time since we were here last. Everything else happened in the College itself, including the explosion that killed the Archmage."
"That sounds like things are getting serious. Paarthurnax' premonitions were right."
Since they'd had little or no contact with Savos Aren (at least not the live one) it wasn't as much of an event to them, as it would have been to Brelyna, who was there at the time. And Mirabelle's death is only announced to the player if Tolfdir is asked. She's alive when you set off for Labyrinthian, because she's the one that gives you the torc. Again, Kothet and Zahra hardly know her, and wouldn't ask.
I considered putting in more, but had to wonder why Kothet would know or care about the details. I had to add the Paarthurnax visit to give him a reason to care at all.
Ah, as I figured, I simply missed a key piece. Thanks for the explanation!
Acadian: Brelyna will not be allowed to forget "dog incidents". 
I think she has a lot in common with Ancotar in Oblivion - she wants to see what's just beyond the boundaries of known magic. However, she's usually aware of the precautions needed when experimenting. If she's not distracted, that is.
--------------
Peviously: Brelyna found herself with the job of Archmage, and started making the arrangements for the new regime.
--------------
43 - Winterhold and Dawnstar
"I gather Ranyu told you how I turned him into a dog, didn't he?" Brelyna confessed. "But I did do it safely, in the College, where I could get help if I needed it. And he's himself again, maybe even better for the experience."
"Actually, he hadn't," Zahra told her. "I was just thinking about how your spell-testing went back at our tower. Especially that first time you summoned him."
"But that worked perfectly!"
"it may have turned out well, but you didn't think about all the consequences before casting it, did you? He wasn't expecting to be summoned nude, or find himself in the middle of ..."
"Oh, right. I was just looking at it from my perspective. But I was used to conjuring atronachs, and if you think about calling them up to fight for you, it holds you back. And a woman's got to make a good first impression, hasn't she?"
---
I'd had the chance for a long chat with Ranyu about things like that. Zahra had developed from her traditionally subservient female role in the Deadlands, to one that made more sense here. His situation was a bit different, as he'd been summoned by a mortal female, but without the usual constraints of the short-term spell.
"Perhaps it's a good thing she was giving me a good reason to want to stay," he'd responded. "I really don't think about it. The original deal would have had me join you as a fighting team against Alduin, so this may not be as glorious, but it's a lot more fun!"
"And you've stayed because of your sense of duty?" I taunted.
"What else?"
---
Brelyna thought that her first task as the new Archmage should be to try and repair the rift between the College and the townsfolk of Winterhold. So she walked down to the Jarl's residence to speak with him. We followed behind her, intending to continue our journey back to our tower.
The two women who attacked us were dressed in what looked like College robes, but they also had steel gauntlets and boots, like a battlemage. I recognised that uniform. "Vigilants of Stendarr," I told Brelyna. "Fanatical persecutors of daedra, and any who associate with them."
I explained how they'd been the bane of my existence ever since the end of the Oblivion Crisis, but recently they'd had the sense to avoid direct confrontation. I'd got a bit beyond what they could handle.
"So am I going to have problems like this every time I leave the College with Ranyu?"
"Or you're carrying a Daedric artifact, like Azura's star, or you become a vampire or a werewolf."
"What do vampires and werewolves have to do with it?"
"Molag Bal and Hircine," Zahra replied. "Although the victims were once mortals, they have been corrupted by the Daedric Princes, in the eyes of the Vigilants."
"Even though they were infected here, by others who used to be regular folk themselves?"
"Yes," I continued, "and they seem to include the undead in their proscribed list, although the connections there are even more tenuous. Not to mention that they're starting to side with Meridia, another Daedric Prince. Fanatical cults rarely make sense."
---
Brelyna's discussions with Jarl Korir didn't go well. It was impossible to convince him that the tremors that sent most of the town into the Sea of Ghosts weren't the College's fault. Or that the magic that protected the College itself from destruction - which had been put in place precisely because they feared their own experiments could harm it - could not have been extended to the town.
She began to believe that Korir just needed a scapegoat for his own incompetence. There had been little or no attempt to rebuild. The ruined buildings were still standing to remind everyone of the past. Nothing had changed since the collapse, because he'd done nothing.
She was telling me all this back at our tower in the Reach. Zahra and I had become her unofficial advisory team, even if we hadn't volunteered for it. And also the reinforcements she sought whenever she had a tough task, in this case hunting for the Helm of Winterhold.
"I don't imagine retrieving it for Jarl Korir will make any real difference, but I thought I should at least try," Brelyna had explained. "As a gesture of reconciliation, if nothing else."
She explained that Korir had given her a list of locations where the Helm might be. "We can eliminate a couple of them right away," she said. "We've been in Saarthal, and Ironbind Barrow,and it wasn't in either of those."
"Most of the others are near Dawnstar, rather than Winterhold. Does that have any significance?"
"No idea, unless it was someone from Dawnstar that took it from Winterhold way back when."
---
The fanatics that attacked us in Dawnstar weren't the Vigilants, but something else. Their masks were something I hadn't seen before, and their robes were partially armoured. And it was clear that I was their target, rather than "Daedra and those who cavort with them". It was because I was Dragonborn, and that was offensive to Miraak, whoever he was. The cultists seemed to believe he was "the true Dragonborn".
We found orders on one of the corpses that indicated that they'd come here from Solstheim, on board a ship called the Northern Maiden, which traded between Raven Rock and Windhelm. I knew that Brelyna intended to make a trip over to the island to visit Neloth at some time in the future, so maybe we'd all be going.
After we found the Helm of Winterhold in Fort Fellhammer on the way towards Windhelm, we'd run out of reasons to stay on the mainland.
Perhaps this was a good thing. One of the Dawnstar guards had been injured in the cultists' attack and I didn't want anyone else getting sucked into this, whatever it was. Hopefully we'd be over there before Miraak sent any more our way.
I think she has a lot in common with Ancotar in Oblivion - she wants to see what's just beyond the boundaries of known magic. However, she's usually aware of the precautions needed when experimenting. If she's not distracted, that is.
--------------
Peviously: Brelyna found herself with the job of Archmage, and started making the arrangements for the new regime.
--------------
43 - Winterhold and Dawnstar
"I gather Ranyu told you how I turned him into a dog, didn't he?" Brelyna confessed. "But I did do it safely, in the College, where I could get help if I needed it. And he's himself again, maybe even better for the experience."
"Actually, he hadn't," Zahra told her. "I was just thinking about how your spell-testing went back at our tower. Especially that first time you summoned him."
"But that worked perfectly!"
"it may have turned out well, but you didn't think about all the consequences before casting it, did you? He wasn't expecting to be summoned nude, or find himself in the middle of ..."
"Oh, right. I was just looking at it from my perspective. But I was used to conjuring atronachs, and if you think about calling them up to fight for you, it holds you back. And a woman's got to make a good first impression, hasn't she?"
---
I'd had the chance for a long chat with Ranyu about things like that. Zahra had developed from her traditionally subservient female role in the Deadlands, to one that made more sense here. His situation was a bit different, as he'd been summoned by a mortal female, but without the usual constraints of the short-term spell.
"Perhaps it's a good thing she was giving me a good reason to want to stay," he'd responded. "I really don't think about it. The original deal would have had me join you as a fighting team against Alduin, so this may not be as glorious, but it's a lot more fun!"
"And you've stayed because of your sense of duty?" I taunted.
"What else?"
---
Brelyna thought that her first task as the new Archmage should be to try and repair the rift between the College and the townsfolk of Winterhold. So she walked down to the Jarl's residence to speak with him. We followed behind her, intending to continue our journey back to our tower.
The two women who attacked us were dressed in what looked like College robes, but they also had steel gauntlets and boots, like a battlemage. I recognised that uniform. "Vigilants of Stendarr," I told Brelyna. "Fanatical persecutors of daedra, and any who associate with them."
I explained how they'd been the bane of my existence ever since the end of the Oblivion Crisis, but recently they'd had the sense to avoid direct confrontation. I'd got a bit beyond what they could handle.
"So am I going to have problems like this every time I leave the College with Ranyu?"
"Or you're carrying a Daedric artifact, like Azura's star, or you become a vampire or a werewolf."
"What do vampires and werewolves have to do with it?"
"Molag Bal and Hircine," Zahra replied. "Although the victims were once mortals, they have been corrupted by the Daedric Princes, in the eyes of the Vigilants."
"Even though they were infected here, by others who used to be regular folk themselves?"
"Yes," I continued, "and they seem to include the undead in their proscribed list, although the connections there are even more tenuous. Not to mention that they're starting to side with Meridia, another Daedric Prince. Fanatical cults rarely make sense."
---
Brelyna's discussions with Jarl Korir didn't go well. It was impossible to convince him that the tremors that sent most of the town into the Sea of Ghosts weren't the College's fault. Or that the magic that protected the College itself from destruction - which had been put in place precisely because they feared their own experiments could harm it - could not have been extended to the town.
She began to believe that Korir just needed a scapegoat for his own incompetence. There had been little or no attempt to rebuild. The ruined buildings were still standing to remind everyone of the past. Nothing had changed since the collapse, because he'd done nothing.
She was telling me all this back at our tower in the Reach. Zahra and I had become her unofficial advisory team, even if we hadn't volunteered for it. And also the reinforcements she sought whenever she had a tough task, in this case hunting for the Helm of Winterhold.
"I don't imagine retrieving it for Jarl Korir will make any real difference, but I thought I should at least try," Brelyna had explained. "As a gesture of reconciliation, if nothing else."
She explained that Korir had given her a list of locations where the Helm might be. "We can eliminate a couple of them right away," she said. "We've been in Saarthal, and Ironbind Barrow,and it wasn't in either of those."
"Most of the others are near Dawnstar, rather than Winterhold. Does that have any significance?"
"No idea, unless it was someone from Dawnstar that took it from Winterhold way back when."
---
The fanatics that attacked us in Dawnstar weren't the Vigilants, but something else. Their masks were something I hadn't seen before, and their robes were partially armoured. And it was clear that I was their target, rather than "Daedra and those who cavort with them". It was because I was Dragonborn, and that was offensive to Miraak, whoever he was. The cultists seemed to believe he was "the true Dragonborn".
We found orders on one of the corpses that indicated that they'd come here from Solstheim, on board a ship called the Northern Maiden, which traded between Raven Rock and Windhelm. I knew that Brelyna intended to make a trip over to the island to visit Neloth at some time in the future, so maybe we'd all be going.
After we found the Helm of Winterhold in Fort Fellhammer on the way towards Windhelm, we'd run out of reasons to stay on the mainland.
Perhaps this was a good thing. One of the Dawnstar guards had been injured in the cultists' attack and I didn't want anyone else getting sucked into this, whatever it was. Hopefully we'd be over there before Miraak sent any more our way.
Ahhh, life as Archmage. I wonder if Bre might consider using that Nord student as an emissary to Dawnstar to help ease things since he is a Nord. The town does seem rather dug in against the College though. Oh well.
Vigilantes. I'm not a big fan of them either.
Vigilantes. I'm not a big fan of them either.
Acadian: Onmund would probably end up agreeing with Korir.
----------
Previously: Kothet, Zahra, Brelyna and Ranyu were attacked a couple of times by cultists, The oone from Solstheim merited intervention.
----------
44 - Solstheim
It wasn't easy persuading Captain Gjalund to make another trip. The cultists had come aboard in Raven Rock and the next thing he knew, he was in Windhlem, and they'd disappeared, without paying their fare. We paid in advance, and convinced him he owed me a favour. Those cultists had attacked me, after all. And perhaps the news that they were dead helped, too.
The people in Raven Rock had me wondering if we did the right thing by coming here. They seemed to be distrustful of strangers, and even Brelyna, who was a Dunmer like them, wasn't from the right House. And when we asked about Miraak, we couldn't ge a straight answer from any of them. So we decided to head for Tel Mithryn, and Neloth. We did at least get decent directions to there.
We walked out on to the ashen trail that lead out of the Bulwark, with Ranyu and Brelyna in the lead. "Look how they're holding hands like a pair of teenagers," Zahra remarked.
"Not a good idea if we don't know what to expect on this road," I replied. "They're supposed to be watching out for danger, not distracting each other."
"If we were really worried about that, I wouldn't have let a pretty young woman walk ahead of you, " Zahra rejoined.
I think Brelyna heard her, because the sway of her hips became a bit more exaggerated. "And if I really want to distract Kothet, I do this." Her outfit briefly disappeared, just like when she'd been practising her spell.
I didn't get the chance to encourage her to do it again, because we all saw the creatures rise up out of the ground near the ruined farmhouse further down the road, and start throwing fireballs at the man emerging from it.
We ran to his aid, and quickly dispatched the things. "Ash Spawn" he called them.
Captain Veleth, of the Redoran Guard, was in charge of security in Raven Rock. When one of his men hadn't returned from a patrol to this farm, he'd come here himself to investigate. "I was just searching for clues when they attacked."
We naturally offered to help, and soon found a note in one of the piles of ash they'd left behind. "That's strange, this note is written by General Falx Carius, but he died over 200 years ago when the Red Mountain erupted and leveled this place. And he was an Imperial, the garrison commander at Fort Frostmoth. There's no way he could still be alive after all this time."
The Captain returned to Raven Rock to rally the guard, after telling us that the Fort lay between here and Tel Mithryn.
---
There were several more of the Ash Spawn creatures at the Fort, and of course, the main door was locked and we had to take the long route through the prison. More of them were inside.
But their main attack was those fireballs, and Dremora and Dunmer both resist fire well, even before that's enhanced with a bit of magic. They had weapons, but nothing approaching my war-hammer.
We came across the journal of a conjurer named Ildari, who was probably responsible for raising these ash spawn from the dead bodies of the imperial soldiers. It was likely that the General, too, was undead.
When we got into the main fort, we discovered that the General himself, Falx Carius, had a war-hammer of his own, and not an ordinary one. It seemed to have multiple enchantments, and dealt damage from all the elements, although thankfully, just one at a time.
So it became a test of skill. Who could block best, and react fastest. I'll confess that I quite enjoyed the challenge. My companions could not help; in the narrow corridor none of them could reach past me. It also meant that neither of us could really swing our weapons, so it took longer than it might have in the open.
I did eventually prevail, after starting to wonder if I might become an ash creature if I didn't. That might have been the extra spark I needed.
---
We debated for a while whether to return to Raven Rock first, or carry on to Tel Mithryn. The Champion's Cudgel that Carius had been using was too valuable to leave behind, but it was also rather heavy to carry with us. And as the strongest, I knew who'd have to carry it. I already had a full set of Daedric Armour, and my own war-hammer.
"Perhaps they'll buy it at Tel Mithryn," Brelyna suggested. "Neloth might be interested in that unusual enchantment. And even if he's not buying, I'd like to know more about it."
---
We continued in the direction of Tel Mithryn, and I noticed Brelyna and Ranyu holding hands again. This time I mentioned it directly to Brelyna, and she told me that it wasn't just the show of affection it appeared. She'd been getting a strange feeling that something was trying to control her. Apparently none of the rest of us could feel it, but she could. So she'd asked Ranyu to hold on to her, in case she tried to run off. "I don't know if I would try and run towards the source, or away, but I'd probably be able to run faster than any of you. So don't let me, please!"
"Where's it coming from?" Zahra asked.
"That's the problem. It's coming from everywhere. If I could identify a location, we could all go and do something about it, but I can't. It's not very strong, and I can resist now, but I don't know if I'm getting closer to it, or farther away."
"So there are most likely several sources, if not the entire island," I deduced. "Perhaps Neloth will have a clue."
Neloth did, and the whole thing had him fascinated. "It appears that you're safe from it here in the tower, so if I were you, Brelyna, I'd take a nap here while you have the chance. It's more likely to take you over when you sleep, so you won't want to do that anywhere else."
While she did that, he took the rest of us to see the Sun Stone, which was just along the trail to the north. Several men, completely oblivious to our presence, were laboriously constructing a stone edifice around it, chanting as they did so.
"These were a bunch of marauding Reavers until this happened to them," Neloth told us. "It appears that they camped too close to the Sun Stone, and its influence was too much. I'm almost immune to Illusion spells myself, so I don't feel it, but some of my staff aren't so fortunate. I've had to enchant some of their gear to compensate."
"Aren't you going to do anything about these people?"
"Stop them, you mean? Certainly not! I would be unable to see how this all turns out."
We asked him about Miraak, and he recalled the name, but not much detail. "Miraak ... it sounds familiar, and yet I can't quite place... Oh, wait. I recall. But it makes little sense. Miraak's been dead for thousands of years. There are ruins of a temple with that name in the middle of the Island, but I'm not sure there's any connection."
I still didn't understand why Neloth was not affected, and nor were we three Dremora. He believed it was because he'd developed a resistance to it, after it had been used on him a lot back in Morrowind. "The Telvanni are always trying to put one over on each other, and getting someone to do something embarrassing was a favourite trick."
That rang true. The three of us had probably been summoned hundreds of times in our earlier days, until we advanced beyond that. Even when mortal wizards learned stronger spells, the command component became less effective, and was replaced by our respect for the caster's skill. We'd all learned to resist it, and Brelyna hadn't.
----------
Previously: Kothet, Zahra, Brelyna and Ranyu were attacked a couple of times by cultists, The oone from Solstheim merited intervention.
----------
44 - Solstheim
It wasn't easy persuading Captain Gjalund to make another trip. The cultists had come aboard in Raven Rock and the next thing he knew, he was in Windhlem, and they'd disappeared, without paying their fare. We paid in advance, and convinced him he owed me a favour. Those cultists had attacked me, after all. And perhaps the news that they were dead helped, too.
The people in Raven Rock had me wondering if we did the right thing by coming here. They seemed to be distrustful of strangers, and even Brelyna, who was a Dunmer like them, wasn't from the right House. And when we asked about Miraak, we couldn't ge a straight answer from any of them. So we decided to head for Tel Mithryn, and Neloth. We did at least get decent directions to there.
We walked out on to the ashen trail that lead out of the Bulwark, with Ranyu and Brelyna in the lead. "Look how they're holding hands like a pair of teenagers," Zahra remarked.
"Not a good idea if we don't know what to expect on this road," I replied. "They're supposed to be watching out for danger, not distracting each other."
"If we were really worried about that, I wouldn't have let a pretty young woman walk ahead of you, " Zahra rejoined.
I think Brelyna heard her, because the sway of her hips became a bit more exaggerated. "And if I really want to distract Kothet, I do this." Her outfit briefly disappeared, just like when she'd been practising her spell.
I didn't get the chance to encourage her to do it again, because we all saw the creatures rise up out of the ground near the ruined farmhouse further down the road, and start throwing fireballs at the man emerging from it.
We ran to his aid, and quickly dispatched the things. "Ash Spawn" he called them.
Captain Veleth, of the Redoran Guard, was in charge of security in Raven Rock. When one of his men hadn't returned from a patrol to this farm, he'd come here himself to investigate. "I was just searching for clues when they attacked."
We naturally offered to help, and soon found a note in one of the piles of ash they'd left behind. "That's strange, this note is written by General Falx Carius, but he died over 200 years ago when the Red Mountain erupted and leveled this place. And he was an Imperial, the garrison commander at Fort Frostmoth. There's no way he could still be alive after all this time."
The Captain returned to Raven Rock to rally the guard, after telling us that the Fort lay between here and Tel Mithryn.
---
There were several more of the Ash Spawn creatures at the Fort, and of course, the main door was locked and we had to take the long route through the prison. More of them were inside.
But their main attack was those fireballs, and Dremora and Dunmer both resist fire well, even before that's enhanced with a bit of magic. They had weapons, but nothing approaching my war-hammer.
We came across the journal of a conjurer named Ildari, who was probably responsible for raising these ash spawn from the dead bodies of the imperial soldiers. It was likely that the General, too, was undead.
When we got into the main fort, we discovered that the General himself, Falx Carius, had a war-hammer of his own, and not an ordinary one. It seemed to have multiple enchantments, and dealt damage from all the elements, although thankfully, just one at a time.
So it became a test of skill. Who could block best, and react fastest. I'll confess that I quite enjoyed the challenge. My companions could not help; in the narrow corridor none of them could reach past me. It also meant that neither of us could really swing our weapons, so it took longer than it might have in the open.
I did eventually prevail, after starting to wonder if I might become an ash creature if I didn't. That might have been the extra spark I needed.
---
We debated for a while whether to return to Raven Rock first, or carry on to Tel Mithryn. The Champion's Cudgel that Carius had been using was too valuable to leave behind, but it was also rather heavy to carry with us. And as the strongest, I knew who'd have to carry it. I already had a full set of Daedric Armour, and my own war-hammer.
"Perhaps they'll buy it at Tel Mithryn," Brelyna suggested. "Neloth might be interested in that unusual enchantment. And even if he's not buying, I'd like to know more about it."
---
We continued in the direction of Tel Mithryn, and I noticed Brelyna and Ranyu holding hands again. This time I mentioned it directly to Brelyna, and she told me that it wasn't just the show of affection it appeared. She'd been getting a strange feeling that something was trying to control her. Apparently none of the rest of us could feel it, but she could. So she'd asked Ranyu to hold on to her, in case she tried to run off. "I don't know if I would try and run towards the source, or away, but I'd probably be able to run faster than any of you. So don't let me, please!"
"Where's it coming from?" Zahra asked.
"That's the problem. It's coming from everywhere. If I could identify a location, we could all go and do something about it, but I can't. It's not very strong, and I can resist now, but I don't know if I'm getting closer to it, or farther away."
"So there are most likely several sources, if not the entire island," I deduced. "Perhaps Neloth will have a clue."
Neloth did, and the whole thing had him fascinated. "It appears that you're safe from it here in the tower, so if I were you, Brelyna, I'd take a nap here while you have the chance. It's more likely to take you over when you sleep, so you won't want to do that anywhere else."
While she did that, he took the rest of us to see the Sun Stone, which was just along the trail to the north. Several men, completely oblivious to our presence, were laboriously constructing a stone edifice around it, chanting as they did so.
"These were a bunch of marauding Reavers until this happened to them," Neloth told us. "It appears that they camped too close to the Sun Stone, and its influence was too much. I'm almost immune to Illusion spells myself, so I don't feel it, but some of my staff aren't so fortunate. I've had to enchant some of their gear to compensate."
"Aren't you going to do anything about these people?"
"Stop them, you mean? Certainly not! I would be unable to see how this all turns out."
We asked him about Miraak, and he recalled the name, but not much detail. "Miraak ... it sounds familiar, and yet I can't quite place... Oh, wait. I recall. But it makes little sense. Miraak's been dead for thousands of years. There are ruins of a temple with that name in the middle of the Island, but I'm not sure there's any connection."
I still didn't understand why Neloth was not affected, and nor were we three Dremora. He believed it was because he'd developed a resistance to it, after it had been used on him a lot back in Morrowind. "The Telvanni are always trying to put one over on each other, and getting someone to do something embarrassing was a favourite trick."
That rang true. The three of us had probably been summoned hundreds of times in our earlier days, until we advanced beyond that. Even when mortal wizards learned stronger spells, the command component became less effective, and was replaced by our respect for the caster's skill. We'd all learned to resist it, and Brelyna hadn't.
Interesting and well-thought out idea as to why Bre is affected while the 3 Dremora are not. Kothet is a perfect Dragonborn to take on Miraak.
Acadian: The "learned resistance" seemed the complement to the magicka reduction when you practice a spell. If it can get easier to cast, it should also get easier to resist.
-----------------
Previously: Kothet and crew arrived in Solstheim and made their way to Tel Mithryn. They left Brelyna ( and Ranyu) there, and went to check out Miraak's Temple.
-----------------
45 - Miraak's Temple
So Zahra and I headed for Miraak's Temple, leaving Brelyna and Ranyu behind at Tel Mithryn. She was here on Solstheim mainly to visit with Neloth anyway, and Miraak was my business, not hers.
More of the thralls were working on the construction there, too, including a number dressed in thick furs, with an armoured woman trying to get their attention. She was the only one who didn't appear to be under the compulsion to build.
We found out that her name was Frea, and that she was the daughter of the shaman of the Skaal Village, to the north-east. She seemed to know more about Miraak, too, but we didn't get to hear it, as a number of the cultists came up from the lower levels to attack us.
That at least told us where the entrance was. The three of us - Zahra, Frea and myself - went in to see what we could find. Below ground, it looked a lot like the old Nordic ruins that we'd found dragon priests in, back on the mainland. "Expect traps," I told the women.
And traps there were, but the cultists seemed to have as much trouble with them as we did. The draugr we encountered were more of a problem, as they seemed to pop out of their coffins every few yards. Still, Frea with her pair of axes was a welcome addition to the party for dealing with them. Her armour stood up well, too.
There was one point where I had to use my "Become Ethereal" shout, or else dodge several sets of swing blades. The former was a lot quicker, so I did. I just hoped I wouldn't want to use it again right away. These traps were getting tiresome.
We seemed to have passed the point where cultists gave way to draugr, and from here on it was just like the mainland tombs. After finding a word wall, with an attendant guardian, I was expecting the next chamber to have a resident dragon priest.
But instead, it just had a number of regular draugr and skeletons, several of which we were able to lure into the traps. We left the chamber through a doorway at the other end and followed the passageway to a small room with a pedestal, on which was a mysterious black book.
I picked up the book and opened it, not expecting what happened next. I found myself in a strange realm with a greenish-yellow sky and what looked like stacks of books all around. Some strange tentacled creatures were standing, no ... hovering around, and a man in a mask climbed off a dragon and walked over to me. The mask looked similar to a dragon priest's, but somehow different. The lower half looked like tentacles, rather than a chin.
"Who are you to dare set foot here? Ahh... You are Dragonborn. I can feel it. And yet..." he began. "So you have slain Alduin... Well done. I could have slain him myself, back when I walked the earth, but I chose a different path. You have no idea of the true power a Dragonborn can wield!"
He shouted, and was covered in what looked like a suit of armour, but made of light. "This realm is beyond you. You have no power here. And it is only a matter of time before Solstheim is also mine. I already control the minds of its people. Soon they will finish building my temple, and I can return home."
He turned to the tentacled creatures and spoke to them. "Send him back where he came from. He can await my arrival with the rest of Tamriel."
I was struck by magical attacks from all of them, which must have included paralysis, as I could do nothing. I soon found myself blacking out, and regaining consciousness back on Solstheim. Frea and Zahra wanted to know what had just happened. So did I.
Frea told us that we needed to go to her father Storn Crag-Strider at the Skaal Village. He'd know more about this, she hoped.
I knew that I'd just been to another Realm, but it wasn't one I'd ever been in before. The books everywhere - and all the tentacles - suggested Hermaeus Mora, but I'd never heard about dragons in Apochrypha. They didn't seem to fit.
---
Frea believed that I'd just seen Miraak. That's what she told her father, anyway, and I had no reason to believe otherwise, especially as he'd admitted being the source of the mind control. And I'd figured out that the word wall in the Temple had taught me the first word of that Dragon Aspect he'd demonstrated, so that fit, too.
Storn told me that I'd need to learn more of the shouts that Miraak knew if I was going to defeat him, and the first should be the one from Saering's Watch, a dragon roost on the northern coast. I set off with Zahra, leaving Frea to help defend the village, in case we'd just stirred up more interference from Miraak.
Of course, there was more than just a word wall with a dragon on it. Saering's Watch had its complement of draugr for us to deal with, too. And when I brought down the dragon with Dragonrend and defeated it, Miraak appeared to prevent me from restoring it. He couldn't stop me learning the word of power from the wall, though, and that's what I really needed.
Storn told me that I could use the shout, "Bend Will", to cleanse the Wind Stone outside the village, and free the Skaal who were labouring there against their will. When I did so, a large creature rose up from the pool around the stone and attacked me. The tentacles marked it as another of Mora's minions, but it wasn't one of the floaty spell-casters. This one had a more physical attack.
When I returned with the Skaal to the village, Storn asked me to do the same for the other stones, and marked tham on my map. We already knew where the Sun Stone was, and the Earth Stone was just outside Raven Rock, the Beast Stone near Miraak's Temple, and the Water Stone was on the West coast.
"There is another stone, the Tree Stone, but that is part of Miraak's Temple and won't be freed until Miraak himself is defeated," Storn told me.
Zahra asked him if cleansing the stones, the ones we could, would be enough to lift Miraak's spell on all the people. He thought so, but it might only delay his plans. "At least it will slow him down."
"We should do so right away," Zahra told me. "Then Brelyna won't be stuck at Tel Mithryn."
I didn't feel she was exactly stuck there, but I knew what she meant.
The Beast Stone was nearest, so we went there first, and encountered one of the cultists supervising the work. Since he attacked us immediately, he was already dead when I shouted at the stone. The shout released everyone there, who seemed mostly to be small humanoid creatures that the one Skaal present named as "Rieklings". I hadn't encountered them before.
Another of the tentacled things - a "Lurker", apparently - was guarding this one, too. It got a number of the small guys before I could kill it. The rest ran off before I could talk with them.
The Sun Stone was next, and after we cleansed that, I went to ask Brelyna if the illusion spell had weakened. "A bit," she told me, "but it hasn't stopped completely."
We went back through Raven Rock, and cleansed the Earth Stone there, before heading up the coast towards the Water Stone. This time two of the Lurkers attacked, one emerging from the sea nearby.
Close to the Water Stone, we were attacked by a dragon, and this time Miraak didn't get involved. I used "Slen Tiid Vo" to restore him, and sent him on his way. Perhaps he'd help restore the balance here.
The Water Stone was being worked on by sailors from a ship that was anchored nearby. Another cultist had been acting as overseer, but the dragon had slain him before we reached the Stone. At least something was going our way.
-----------------
Previously: Kothet and crew arrived in Solstheim and made their way to Tel Mithryn. They left Brelyna ( and Ranyu) there, and went to check out Miraak's Temple.
-----------------
45 - Miraak's Temple
So Zahra and I headed for Miraak's Temple, leaving Brelyna and Ranyu behind at Tel Mithryn. She was here on Solstheim mainly to visit with Neloth anyway, and Miraak was my business, not hers.
More of the thralls were working on the construction there, too, including a number dressed in thick furs, with an armoured woman trying to get their attention. She was the only one who didn't appear to be under the compulsion to build.
We found out that her name was Frea, and that she was the daughter of the shaman of the Skaal Village, to the north-east. She seemed to know more about Miraak, too, but we didn't get to hear it, as a number of the cultists came up from the lower levels to attack us.
That at least told us where the entrance was. The three of us - Zahra, Frea and myself - went in to see what we could find. Below ground, it looked a lot like the old Nordic ruins that we'd found dragon priests in, back on the mainland. "Expect traps," I told the women.
And traps there were, but the cultists seemed to have as much trouble with them as we did. The draugr we encountered were more of a problem, as they seemed to pop out of their coffins every few yards. Still, Frea with her pair of axes was a welcome addition to the party for dealing with them. Her armour stood up well, too.
There was one point where I had to use my "Become Ethereal" shout, or else dodge several sets of swing blades. The former was a lot quicker, so I did. I just hoped I wouldn't want to use it again right away. These traps were getting tiresome.
We seemed to have passed the point where cultists gave way to draugr, and from here on it was just like the mainland tombs. After finding a word wall, with an attendant guardian, I was expecting the next chamber to have a resident dragon priest.
But instead, it just had a number of regular draugr and skeletons, several of which we were able to lure into the traps. We left the chamber through a doorway at the other end and followed the passageway to a small room with a pedestal, on which was a mysterious black book.
I picked up the book and opened it, not expecting what happened next. I found myself in a strange realm with a greenish-yellow sky and what looked like stacks of books all around. Some strange tentacled creatures were standing, no ... hovering around, and a man in a mask climbed off a dragon and walked over to me. The mask looked similar to a dragon priest's, but somehow different. The lower half looked like tentacles, rather than a chin.
"Who are you to dare set foot here? Ahh... You are Dragonborn. I can feel it. And yet..." he began. "So you have slain Alduin... Well done. I could have slain him myself, back when I walked the earth, but I chose a different path. You have no idea of the true power a Dragonborn can wield!"
He shouted, and was covered in what looked like a suit of armour, but made of light. "This realm is beyond you. You have no power here. And it is only a matter of time before Solstheim is also mine. I already control the minds of its people. Soon they will finish building my temple, and I can return home."
He turned to the tentacled creatures and spoke to them. "Send him back where he came from. He can await my arrival with the rest of Tamriel."
I was struck by magical attacks from all of them, which must have included paralysis, as I could do nothing. I soon found myself blacking out, and regaining consciousness back on Solstheim. Frea and Zahra wanted to know what had just happened. So did I.
Frea told us that we needed to go to her father Storn Crag-Strider at the Skaal Village. He'd know more about this, she hoped.
I knew that I'd just been to another Realm, but it wasn't one I'd ever been in before. The books everywhere - and all the tentacles - suggested Hermaeus Mora, but I'd never heard about dragons in Apochrypha. They didn't seem to fit.
---
Frea believed that I'd just seen Miraak. That's what she told her father, anyway, and I had no reason to believe otherwise, especially as he'd admitted being the source of the mind control. And I'd figured out that the word wall in the Temple had taught me the first word of that Dragon Aspect he'd demonstrated, so that fit, too.
Storn told me that I'd need to learn more of the shouts that Miraak knew if I was going to defeat him, and the first should be the one from Saering's Watch, a dragon roost on the northern coast. I set off with Zahra, leaving Frea to help defend the village, in case we'd just stirred up more interference from Miraak.
Of course, there was more than just a word wall with a dragon on it. Saering's Watch had its complement of draugr for us to deal with, too. And when I brought down the dragon with Dragonrend and defeated it, Miraak appeared to prevent me from restoring it. He couldn't stop me learning the word of power from the wall, though, and that's what I really needed.
Storn told me that I could use the shout, "Bend Will", to cleanse the Wind Stone outside the village, and free the Skaal who were labouring there against their will. When I did so, a large creature rose up from the pool around the stone and attacked me. The tentacles marked it as another of Mora's minions, but it wasn't one of the floaty spell-casters. This one had a more physical attack.
When I returned with the Skaal to the village, Storn asked me to do the same for the other stones, and marked tham on my map. We already knew where the Sun Stone was, and the Earth Stone was just outside Raven Rock, the Beast Stone near Miraak's Temple, and the Water Stone was on the West coast.
"There is another stone, the Tree Stone, but that is part of Miraak's Temple and won't be freed until Miraak himself is defeated," Storn told me.
Zahra asked him if cleansing the stones, the ones we could, would be enough to lift Miraak's spell on all the people. He thought so, but it might only delay his plans. "At least it will slow him down."
"We should do so right away," Zahra told me. "Then Brelyna won't be stuck at Tel Mithryn."
I didn't feel she was exactly stuck there, but I knew what she meant.
The Beast Stone was nearest, so we went there first, and encountered one of the cultists supervising the work. Since he attacked us immediately, he was already dead when I shouted at the stone. The shout released everyone there, who seemed mostly to be small humanoid creatures that the one Skaal present named as "Rieklings". I hadn't encountered them before.
Another of the tentacled things - a "Lurker", apparently - was guarding this one, too. It got a number of the small guys before I could kill it. The rest ran off before I could talk with them.
The Sun Stone was next, and after we cleansed that, I went to ask Brelyna if the illusion spell had weakened. "A bit," she told me, "but it hasn't stopped completely."
We went back through Raven Rock, and cleansed the Earth Stone there, before heading up the coast towards the Water Stone. This time two of the Lurkers attacked, one emerging from the sea nearby.
Close to the Water Stone, we were attacked by a dragon, and this time Miraak didn't get involved. I used "Slen Tiid Vo" to restore him, and sent him on his way. Perhaps he'd help restore the balance here.
The Water Stone was being worked on by sailors from a ship that was anchored nearby. Another cultist had been acting as overseer, but the dragon had slain him before we reached the Stone. At least something was going our way.
I’m enjoying Kothet’s experience with Miraak, as Buffy walked away from Solstheim’s main quest part way through and never completed it. I’m interested to see how Kothet manages things.
Nit: ’When I returned with the Skaal to the village, Storn asked me to do the same for the other stones, and marked tham {them} on my map.’
Nit: ’When I returned with the Skaal to the village, Storn asked me to do the same for the other stones, and marked tham {them} on my map.’
I am way behind, half way through Labyrinthian. Sorry, this summer's been hectic so far. It is pretty cool though, especially the part when they use the gate to get rid of enemies slowly, by opening and closing that gate over and over! I'm not sure how my characters handled this one; it's been so long since any of them have been in Labyrinthian.
Interesting, Brelyna becomes Arch Mage. Are you adding any content in your game, quest-wise? Just curious.
Interesting, Brelyna becomes Arch Mage. Are you adding any content in your game, quest-wise? Just curious.
Acadian: I'll mostly be following the Dragonborn Main Quest as in the game, but there's an inconsistency that I intend to repair later.
Renee: Brelyna's been arch-mage before, in Clark's story. She just seems like the right candidate, as she's the only one interested in the College as a place of research. It's the same drive that's taken her to Solstheim with Kothet, to learn from Neloth and Talvas.
-------------
Previously: Kothet and Zahra found a Black Book at Miraak's Temple (and a Frea). They cleansed the All-Maker Stones, too, which released Brelyna from her voluntary exile at Tel Mithryn.
--------------
46 - Black Books
Storn told me that I'd need all of Miraak's powers if I was to defeat him, and some of those he'd doubtless acquired in Apocrypha, so I'd need to pursue him there. That would mean seeking out the Black Books that acted as portals to the realm, and finding all the word walls on the island. I'd learned "Bend Will", or at least the first word of it, to cleanse the All-Maker Stones, but I'd need the other words, and probably other Shouts. I also had a word of "Dragon Aspect", whatever that was, from the wall in Miraak's Temple.
Storn suggested talking to Neloth about the Black Books, as he'd contacted the Skaal on that subject before. So when we went back to see Brelyna again, we did so. Neloth had one, but he was sure it had nothing to do with Miraak. He knew of another Black Book, but it was at Nchardak, a nearby Dwemer ruin, and he hadn't managed to retrieve it. "With your help, however, I think we could do that."
With the All-maker Stones cleansed, Brelyna was now free of Miraak's influence, and able to accompany us, with Ranyu, of course.
As we passed near the Sun Stone, we flushed out another of the Ash Spawn. Despite what we'd achieved with the Stones, they were still a nuisance we'd have to deal with. One thing at a time, however. The Black Books and Miraak were the bigger problem.
---
Nchardak was essentially submerged off the coast, a little north of Tel Mithryn. There was a portion of the ruin above sea level, acting as an entrance, and that part had become the camp for a bunch of reavers. In that, it was quite similar to the Dwemer ruins of the mainland, where the entrance buildings were often the haunt of bandits.
With five in our party, and all but myself using ranged attacks, we quickly dealt with the reavers. I had to ferret out the last archer, who was hiding in one of the towers from the flying spells, but he offered little resistance when I found him.
It was clear that this Dwemer ruin was going going to be a bit different when Neloth produced a "control cube" to unlock the outer door. This was the first time I'd seen one of those. It looked a bit different from the lexicon cubes we'd used at Avanchnzel and Mzark, apart from being cubical, of course. And the receptacles they fitted in were different, too.
Neloth told us that it was the only one he had. He'd found it on his last trip, and had used it to lock the door, and keep out the riff-raff (presumably the reavers, but maybe it included more). He implied that they operated more than just doors.
He led us into the "reading room", where he pointed to a thick glass plate in the floor, through which we could see the black book. "It can't be accessed by any magical means. Believe me, I've tried, and if I can't, nobody can. However, I believe that if power can be restored to this room by restarting the boilers, then this switch over here will do the job."
We followed him through another door, and down an elevator to a deeper level, presumably well beneath sea-level.
"The last time I was here, I only explored a small part of the ruins. I was here alone then, and I find an assistant is absolutely essential for this kind of dirty, dangerous work," he told us as we walked along the corridors to the next chamber.
Neloth told us that history claimed that the entire city had been sunk deliberately to thwart the attacking Nords. It certainly was flooded to just below the level we were at now. Neloth walked to a railing overlooking the water, and put the control cube into one of the pedestals there. It turned on a pump somewhere, and the water level dropped considerably, revealing a platform lower down, where there were more of the pedestals, and some large Dwemer mechanisms.
"The pumps only operate when a cube is in the pedestal. And unfortunately, I have only one cube. These four boilers provide steam to the room upstairs. They're shut down, but they still respond to the control cubes. So, if we can find four more cubes, we can turn these boilers back on and restore steam power to the room upstairs. Then I should be able to open the book's protective case. Bring that cube. We'll need it."
---
We managed to find three more of the cubes on the same level, and they were guarded only by the small Dwarven Spiders we were used to from the mainland ruins. Some of them were activating traps, so taking them not only advanced our cause, but made our progress easier. I suspected we wouldn't be that lucky with all of them. Others operated pumps, and we found ourselves having to swim back through areas where we'd walked on the way in.
---
To find the fanl cube, we needed to access a lower level, so one of the cubes was used to activate another pump to drain the water in the main chamber further. We walked down the ramp, following Neloth, but he paused at the bottom of the ramp and let me take the lead. I soon found out why, as a heavy arrow bounced off my armour, and made me stagger.
Before I got my balance back, the Dwemer construct that fired at me was hit by a fireball, an ice spike and a bolt of lightning from the mages, and an arrow from Ranyu for good measure. I spotted its twin on the other side of the doorway, and ran towards it, keeping a pillar between us, as those arrows were dangerous!
I got this one myself. I hate to think what one of those over-sized arrows would do to an unarmoured mage, or archer. I asked Neloth what these things were, and he called it a Ballista. He'd apparently encountered them before, perhaps on his earlier visit here.
I still had two of the control cubes, and I needed to use one to unseal the door. The pedestal didn't keep the cube. It seemed that the red ones performed transient functions that didn't need the cube to remain there, like opening doors, or lowering bridges. The blue pedestals kept pumps working, or traps, and needed the cube to remain.
That meant that I only needed one of the cubes to operate the bridges in the Aqueduct. However, the controls worked multiple bridges at once, and it took a couple of tries to find the right sequence to get them all in position.
"That's it, Don't touch anything else!" Neloth commanded, and charged off across the first bridge. Of course he let me catch up as soon as the first Dwaven Sphere blocked our way.
There were several of those, and the path led us to an empty pedestal. Placing a cube in it drained the water from the chamber, and revealed a door at the other end. "I'll stay here and collect this cube when you've got the last one," Neloth announced, looking at me when he said it. I suspected that the last one would not be easy to retrieve.
And I suppose it wouldn't have been, without the "become ethereal" shout to simply walk through the many traps in the room. Most of them stopped when I put a cube in the red pedestal to open the door at the back, but taking the cube from the blue pedestal behind it stopped the pump that was keeping the water out of the room. I had to swim back out.
When he saw me returning, Neloth picked up the other cube and the waters rose even further, chasing us all out of the room.
---
Back up in the main chamber, we checked our count. Five cubes in total. The two we'd taken down to the Aqueduct, the one we'd found there, and the two that were keeping the pumps running. We could let this chamber flood back up half-way, but one of the cubes was needed to keep the water level below the boilers. That left one for each boiler control.
When I placed the last of the four cubes in the boiler pedestals, it did more than just start up the last boiler. A bridge lowered, revealing a large Dwemer Centurion, powered up and ready to attack. Fortunately, the others were all beyond the range of any steam blast, provided that I didn't let it cross the bridge. And those are best dealt with up close. They can't get a proper swing of those arm weapons if you're right in there. I'd prefer to be a bit further away to swing my war-hammer, too.
Aim for the joints, I told myself, and stop him advancing. I bashed one knee while I ducked his first swing and came up inside his next one. That stopped him, and he spun at the waist, whirling the axe and hammer over my head, without hitting me at all. I continued to beat on the central pivot until it seized and he fell.
All Neloth had to say was "I'm going to head back upstairs and see if the reading room has steam. If so, it should be a simple matter to release the book."
There was a chest in the space behind his frame, with a few useful items that I collected before following. I was the last to arrive back in the reading room, and the black book was already raised up on its pedestal.
To say I was apprehensive about reading the book would be an understatement. The last time I'd read one, under Miraak's Temple, I was ambushed. I knew that this book would also be a portal to Apocrypha, but would it take me to the same location, or a different one? And would Miraak know I was coming and lay another trap for me?
Although the last time had been unpleasant, I had returned to where I read the book, so if the worst of my imaginings came true, I'd be no worse off. I opened the pages ...
Renee: Brelyna's been arch-mage before, in Clark's story. She just seems like the right candidate, as she's the only one interested in the College as a place of research. It's the same drive that's taken her to Solstheim with Kothet, to learn from Neloth and Talvas.
-------------
Previously: Kothet and Zahra found a Black Book at Miraak's Temple (and a Frea). They cleansed the All-Maker Stones, too, which released Brelyna from her voluntary exile at Tel Mithryn.
--------------
46 - Black Books
Storn told me that I'd need all of Miraak's powers if I was to defeat him, and some of those he'd doubtless acquired in Apocrypha, so I'd need to pursue him there. That would mean seeking out the Black Books that acted as portals to the realm, and finding all the word walls on the island. I'd learned "Bend Will", or at least the first word of it, to cleanse the All-Maker Stones, but I'd need the other words, and probably other Shouts. I also had a word of "Dragon Aspect", whatever that was, from the wall in Miraak's Temple.
Storn suggested talking to Neloth about the Black Books, as he'd contacted the Skaal on that subject before. So when we went back to see Brelyna again, we did so. Neloth had one, but he was sure it had nothing to do with Miraak. He knew of another Black Book, but it was at Nchardak, a nearby Dwemer ruin, and he hadn't managed to retrieve it. "With your help, however, I think we could do that."
With the All-maker Stones cleansed, Brelyna was now free of Miraak's influence, and able to accompany us, with Ranyu, of course.
As we passed near the Sun Stone, we flushed out another of the Ash Spawn. Despite what we'd achieved with the Stones, they were still a nuisance we'd have to deal with. One thing at a time, however. The Black Books and Miraak were the bigger problem.
---
Nchardak was essentially submerged off the coast, a little north of Tel Mithryn. There was a portion of the ruin above sea level, acting as an entrance, and that part had become the camp for a bunch of reavers. In that, it was quite similar to the Dwemer ruins of the mainland, where the entrance buildings were often the haunt of bandits.
With five in our party, and all but myself using ranged attacks, we quickly dealt with the reavers. I had to ferret out the last archer, who was hiding in one of the towers from the flying spells, but he offered little resistance when I found him.
It was clear that this Dwemer ruin was going going to be a bit different when Neloth produced a "control cube" to unlock the outer door. This was the first time I'd seen one of those. It looked a bit different from the lexicon cubes we'd used at Avanchnzel and Mzark, apart from being cubical, of course. And the receptacles they fitted in were different, too.
Neloth told us that it was the only one he had. He'd found it on his last trip, and had used it to lock the door, and keep out the riff-raff (presumably the reavers, but maybe it included more). He implied that they operated more than just doors.
He led us into the "reading room", where he pointed to a thick glass plate in the floor, through which we could see the black book. "It can't be accessed by any magical means. Believe me, I've tried, and if I can't, nobody can. However, I believe that if power can be restored to this room by restarting the boilers, then this switch over here will do the job."
We followed him through another door, and down an elevator to a deeper level, presumably well beneath sea-level.
"The last time I was here, I only explored a small part of the ruins. I was here alone then, and I find an assistant is absolutely essential for this kind of dirty, dangerous work," he told us as we walked along the corridors to the next chamber.
Neloth told us that history claimed that the entire city had been sunk deliberately to thwart the attacking Nords. It certainly was flooded to just below the level we were at now. Neloth walked to a railing overlooking the water, and put the control cube into one of the pedestals there. It turned on a pump somewhere, and the water level dropped considerably, revealing a platform lower down, where there were more of the pedestals, and some large Dwemer mechanisms.
"The pumps only operate when a cube is in the pedestal. And unfortunately, I have only one cube. These four boilers provide steam to the room upstairs. They're shut down, but they still respond to the control cubes. So, if we can find four more cubes, we can turn these boilers back on and restore steam power to the room upstairs. Then I should be able to open the book's protective case. Bring that cube. We'll need it."
---
We managed to find three more of the cubes on the same level, and they were guarded only by the small Dwarven Spiders we were used to from the mainland ruins. Some of them were activating traps, so taking them not only advanced our cause, but made our progress easier. I suspected we wouldn't be that lucky with all of them. Others operated pumps, and we found ourselves having to swim back through areas where we'd walked on the way in.
---
To find the fanl cube, we needed to access a lower level, so one of the cubes was used to activate another pump to drain the water in the main chamber further. We walked down the ramp, following Neloth, but he paused at the bottom of the ramp and let me take the lead. I soon found out why, as a heavy arrow bounced off my armour, and made me stagger.
Before I got my balance back, the Dwemer construct that fired at me was hit by a fireball, an ice spike and a bolt of lightning from the mages, and an arrow from Ranyu for good measure. I spotted its twin on the other side of the doorway, and ran towards it, keeping a pillar between us, as those arrows were dangerous!
I got this one myself. I hate to think what one of those over-sized arrows would do to an unarmoured mage, or archer. I asked Neloth what these things were, and he called it a Ballista. He'd apparently encountered them before, perhaps on his earlier visit here.
I still had two of the control cubes, and I needed to use one to unseal the door. The pedestal didn't keep the cube. It seemed that the red ones performed transient functions that didn't need the cube to remain there, like opening doors, or lowering bridges. The blue pedestals kept pumps working, or traps, and needed the cube to remain.
That meant that I only needed one of the cubes to operate the bridges in the Aqueduct. However, the controls worked multiple bridges at once, and it took a couple of tries to find the right sequence to get them all in position.
"That's it, Don't touch anything else!" Neloth commanded, and charged off across the first bridge. Of course he let me catch up as soon as the first Dwaven Sphere blocked our way.
There were several of those, and the path led us to an empty pedestal. Placing a cube in it drained the water from the chamber, and revealed a door at the other end. "I'll stay here and collect this cube when you've got the last one," Neloth announced, looking at me when he said it. I suspected that the last one would not be easy to retrieve.
And I suppose it wouldn't have been, without the "become ethereal" shout to simply walk through the many traps in the room. Most of them stopped when I put a cube in the red pedestal to open the door at the back, but taking the cube from the blue pedestal behind it stopped the pump that was keeping the water out of the room. I had to swim back out.
When he saw me returning, Neloth picked up the other cube and the waters rose even further, chasing us all out of the room.
---
Back up in the main chamber, we checked our count. Five cubes in total. The two we'd taken down to the Aqueduct, the one we'd found there, and the two that were keeping the pumps running. We could let this chamber flood back up half-way, but one of the cubes was needed to keep the water level below the boilers. That left one for each boiler control.
When I placed the last of the four cubes in the boiler pedestals, it did more than just start up the last boiler. A bridge lowered, revealing a large Dwemer Centurion, powered up and ready to attack. Fortunately, the others were all beyond the range of any steam blast, provided that I didn't let it cross the bridge. And those are best dealt with up close. They can't get a proper swing of those arm weapons if you're right in there. I'd prefer to be a bit further away to swing my war-hammer, too.
Aim for the joints, I told myself, and stop him advancing. I bashed one knee while I ducked his first swing and came up inside his next one. That stopped him, and he spun at the waist, whirling the axe and hammer over my head, without hitting me at all. I continued to beat on the central pivot until it seized and he fell.
All Neloth had to say was "I'm going to head back upstairs and see if the reading room has steam. If so, it should be a simple matter to release the book."
There was a chest in the space behind his frame, with a few useful items that I collected before following. I was the last to arrive back in the reading room, and the black book was already raised up on its pedestal.
To say I was apprehensive about reading the book would be an understatement. The last time I'd read one, under Miraak's Temple, I was ambushed. I knew that this book would also be a portal to Apocrypha, but would it take me to the same location, or a different one? And would Miraak know I was coming and lay another trap for me?
Although the last time had been unpleasant, I had returned to where I read the book, so if the worst of my imaginings came true, I'd be no worse off. I opened the pages ...
A tense passage through the watery grave called Nchardak. Good teamwork with Kothet up front, three ranged attackers and. . . Neloth.
Uh oh, into another of Slimy Morosa’s books!
Nits:
- - ’It was clear that this Dwemer ruin was going going to be a bit different. . . .’ – ‘going’ twice.
- - ’To find the fanl cube, we needed to access . . . .‘ – ‘final’.
- - ’Of course he let me catch up as soon as the first Dwaven Sphere blocked our way.’ – ‘Dwarven’.
Uh oh, into another of Slimy Morosa’s books!
Nits:
- - ’It was clear that this Dwemer ruin was going going to be a bit different. . . .’ – ‘going’ twice.
- - ’To find the fanl cube, we needed to access . . . .‘ – ‘final’.
- - ’Of course he let me catch up as soon as the first Dwaven Sphere blocked our way.’ – ‘Dwarven’.
I am catching up to everyone else on this piece, but I am going to do try to do it quickly so that I can post more regularly in regards to this story.
I will be posting my reviews for prior chapters below in links and will be editing to add reviews until I am up to the current chapter to minimize disruption to the flow.
Review of Kothet's Story - Chapters I - V
Review of Kothet's Story - Chapters VI - X
Edit: Added Review of Kothet's Story Chapters VI - X.
I will be posting my reviews for prior chapters below in links and will be editing to add reviews until I am up to the current chapter to minimize disruption to the flow.
Review of Kothet's Story - Chapters I - V
Review of Kothet's Story - Chapters VI - X
Edit: Added Review of Kothet's Story Chapters VI - X.
Acadian: The Black Books are a necessity for Kothet, or he might prefer to avoid them.
Zalphon: There are a few things to keep in mind when reading my writings here:
They are fan-fiction, so characters that everyone already knows aren't developed much, unless they exhibit significant changes from the way they behave in the game. So Brelyna, for example, is much the same character, but is given a bit more room to develop, although she is still constrained by the game's quests. I may also take a few swipes at the game mechanics, when appropriate. They don't always advance the story.
They are "commercials" for my mods - in this case "Dremora Hearthfires" - and often detail what the test character experienced, rather than having an over-arching story in mind from the beginning. Some characters just take over - like Clark did in the Gweden Report.
------------
Previously: Kothet and company had released the Black Book at Nchardak, and he'd opened it.
------------
47 - Apocrypha
No welcoming committee this time, but no clear pathway, either. There's something in the middle of the platform that might do something if I knew how to use it. I reached my hand out to touch it, and a ball, tear-drop, or whatever fell into some waiting tentacles, and the thing closed up like a flower at night.
And as it did so, a bridge unrolled out onto the liquid sea that surrounded the platform. As I walked out onto it, a large whip-like tentacle ashed at me, but I'd already passed it and entered a moving corridor at the other end of the bridge. The other end of the corridor swung past a platform like the one I'd left, and I stepped off. In the middle of that platform was another of those scrye things I'd used, so this time it was less of a mystery.
I saw a second bridge unroll, from another platform nearby, but the only way to it was to ride the moving corridor again. So I waited until it swung past and took the trip. There was a book on a pedestal, and no way out except back the way I came. I assumed the book would be another portal, so I read it. "Chapter II" was ahead.
Sure enough, I was transported to another location, next to a book that appeared to connect back if I needed to retrace my steps. I glanced at the cover, which read "Chapter I".
---
The narrow passage led to another of those scryes, and using this one made the corridor ahead unfurl, and roll out flat. It became the floor of a large room, open to the "sky", if you can that greenish-yellow murk a sky. Around the edges, I could see some of the same creatures I'd encountered before. A Lurker, like the ones at the All-Maker Stones, and a couple of the tentacled floating spell-casters that Miraak had used in his ambush.
Since there had been no floor until I released it, they were well-spaced around the outside, so I could deal with them one at a time, if I was quick about it. I rushed at the Lurker, as he looked like the fastest-moving of the group, even if he was also the largest. I'd also had some experience of defeating them, so rather the enemy I knew ...
I didn't quite manage to defeat him before the other two - seekers, I believe they're called - caught up to me. But he fell just as the first spells hit me. I whirled around to face the others, and found that I had only one to fight, and the other was still a way off.
That didn't last long, as my first blow seemed to split the creature in two, and now I had a second opponent to deal with. Hoping this was a one-time thing, I struck again, and to my relief, both creatures fell. Perhaps the second had just been a decoy?
But I still had one more seeker to fight, and I drank my last health potion just as he arrived. That was enough to sustain me for that fight, but now I had none, and I wasn't done yet.
I found fonts of magicka and stamina, but none of health. Still, I knew a healing spell, so I cast it until I was out of magicka, and restored myself at a font. I'd need to look out for more as I progressed.
Another scrye opened the door out, and just down the corridor was another portal book to "Chapter III"
---
From this point on, it was just more of the same. I didn't encounter more than one of the creatures at a time (unless you count the dividing seekers), and the magicka fonts were encountered often enough to keep me going.
Until, that is, I found the final book that would return me to Solstheim. As I opened that, Hermeaus Mora materialised in front of me.
"You thought to reject me, and yet here you are. Your journey towards enlightenment has finally led you here, to my realm, as I knew it would."
I asked him what he wanted this time.
"You have entered my realm. You have sought out the forbidden knowledge that only one other has obtained. You are Dragonborn, like Miraak before you. A seeker of knowledge and power."
"Yes, I came here to learn what Miraak knows," I replied.
"All that he knows he learned from me. I know what you want: to use you power as Dragonborn to bend the world to your will. Here then is the knowledge you need, although you did not know you needed it. The second Word of Power. Use it to bend the wills of mortals to your purpose. But this is not enough. Miraak knows the final Word of Power. Without that, you cannot hope to surpass him. Miraak served me well, and he was rewarded. I can grant you the same power as he wields, but all knowledge has its price."
Here it comes, I thought. "So what's your price?"
"Knowledge for knowledge. The Skaal have withheld their secrets from me for many long years. The time has come for this knowledge to be added to my library."
"What if the Skaal refuse to give up their secrets?"
"My servant Miraak would have found a way to bring me what I want. So will you if you wish to surpass him. Send the Skaal shaman to me. He holds the secrets that will be mine."
Mora faded out, leaving me with the second word of Bend Will, and the book to return to Solstheim, which it turned out would also teach me something new, a power to reinforce one of my shouts. Since I hadn't ever used the ones on offer, I chose Dragonborn Force as the most likely to be useful.
---
Neloth and the others were waiting. "What happened? What did you see? Different people have very different experiences when reading these books."
I told him that I'd talked to Mora, and learned the second word of Bend Will. And that Mora wanted the "secrets of the Skaal" in return for the third. He'd also told me that I'd need it to be able even to reach Miraak, let alone defeat him.
"Hmph. What secrets could they have worth keeping from old Mora? Sounds like a bargain to me. Hermaeus Mora learns some fascinating new ways to skin a horker and you become the second most powerful Dragonborn that ever lived. Well, that gives me a lot to think about. I need to get back to Tel Mithryn. I have some ideas about how to locate more of these Black Books."
---
The ambush that hadn't happened in Apocrypha happened as we left Nchardak. A dragon swooped down and blasted us with frost. With a full party of mages, archer, and Dragonborn, the outcome wasn't in any doubt, and soon I was restoring Krosulhah and discovering that Miraak had somehow sent him to attack us. I didn't understand how Miraak, still trapped in Apochrypha, could influence dragons here.
Neloth presumed that he'd done it the same way he commanded the people to work on his shrines and temple. "There must be things here, like the Black Books, that communicate between the realms. Those Standing Stones served that purpose, until you did something to them, that I don't yet fully understand. Didn't you say that there was one still in Miraak's control?"
Zalphon: There are a few things to keep in mind when reading my writings here:
They are fan-fiction, so characters that everyone already knows aren't developed much, unless they exhibit significant changes from the way they behave in the game. So Brelyna, for example, is much the same character, but is given a bit more room to develop, although she is still constrained by the game's quests. I may also take a few swipes at the game mechanics, when appropriate. They don't always advance the story.
They are "commercials" for my mods - in this case "Dremora Hearthfires" - and often detail what the test character experienced, rather than having an over-arching story in mind from the beginning. Some characters just take over - like Clark did in the Gweden Report.
------------
Previously: Kothet and company had released the Black Book at Nchardak, and he'd opened it.
------------
47 - Apocrypha
No welcoming committee this time, but no clear pathway, either. There's something in the middle of the platform that might do something if I knew how to use it. I reached my hand out to touch it, and a ball, tear-drop, or whatever fell into some waiting tentacles, and the thing closed up like a flower at night.
And as it did so, a bridge unrolled out onto the liquid sea that surrounded the platform. As I walked out onto it, a large whip-like tentacle ashed at me, but I'd already passed it and entered a moving corridor at the other end of the bridge. The other end of the corridor swung past a platform like the one I'd left, and I stepped off. In the middle of that platform was another of those scrye things I'd used, so this time it was less of a mystery.
I saw a second bridge unroll, from another platform nearby, but the only way to it was to ride the moving corridor again. So I waited until it swung past and took the trip. There was a book on a pedestal, and no way out except back the way I came. I assumed the book would be another portal, so I read it. "Chapter II" was ahead.
Sure enough, I was transported to another location, next to a book that appeared to connect back if I needed to retrace my steps. I glanced at the cover, which read "Chapter I".
---
The narrow passage led to another of those scryes, and using this one made the corridor ahead unfurl, and roll out flat. It became the floor of a large room, open to the "sky", if you can that greenish-yellow murk a sky. Around the edges, I could see some of the same creatures I'd encountered before. A Lurker, like the ones at the All-Maker Stones, and a couple of the tentacled floating spell-casters that Miraak had used in his ambush.
Since there had been no floor until I released it, they were well-spaced around the outside, so I could deal with them one at a time, if I was quick about it. I rushed at the Lurker, as he looked like the fastest-moving of the group, even if he was also the largest. I'd also had some experience of defeating them, so rather the enemy I knew ...
I didn't quite manage to defeat him before the other two - seekers, I believe they're called - caught up to me. But he fell just as the first spells hit me. I whirled around to face the others, and found that I had only one to fight, and the other was still a way off.
That didn't last long, as my first blow seemed to split the creature in two, and now I had a second opponent to deal with. Hoping this was a one-time thing, I struck again, and to my relief, both creatures fell. Perhaps the second had just been a decoy?
But I still had one more seeker to fight, and I drank my last health potion just as he arrived. That was enough to sustain me for that fight, but now I had none, and I wasn't done yet.
I found fonts of magicka and stamina, but none of health. Still, I knew a healing spell, so I cast it until I was out of magicka, and restored myself at a font. I'd need to look out for more as I progressed.
Another scrye opened the door out, and just down the corridor was another portal book to "Chapter III"
---
From this point on, it was just more of the same. I didn't encounter more than one of the creatures at a time (unless you count the dividing seekers), and the magicka fonts were encountered often enough to keep me going.
Until, that is, I found the final book that would return me to Solstheim. As I opened that, Hermeaus Mora materialised in front of me.
"You thought to reject me, and yet here you are. Your journey towards enlightenment has finally led you here, to my realm, as I knew it would."
I asked him what he wanted this time.
"You have entered my realm. You have sought out the forbidden knowledge that only one other has obtained. You are Dragonborn, like Miraak before you. A seeker of knowledge and power."
"Yes, I came here to learn what Miraak knows," I replied.
"All that he knows he learned from me. I know what you want: to use you power as Dragonborn to bend the world to your will. Here then is the knowledge you need, although you did not know you needed it. The second Word of Power. Use it to bend the wills of mortals to your purpose. But this is not enough. Miraak knows the final Word of Power. Without that, you cannot hope to surpass him. Miraak served me well, and he was rewarded. I can grant you the same power as he wields, but all knowledge has its price."
Here it comes, I thought. "So what's your price?"
"Knowledge for knowledge. The Skaal have withheld their secrets from me for many long years. The time has come for this knowledge to be added to my library."
"What if the Skaal refuse to give up their secrets?"
"My servant Miraak would have found a way to bring me what I want. So will you if you wish to surpass him. Send the Skaal shaman to me. He holds the secrets that will be mine."
Mora faded out, leaving me with the second word of Bend Will, and the book to return to Solstheim, which it turned out would also teach me something new, a power to reinforce one of my shouts. Since I hadn't ever used the ones on offer, I chose Dragonborn Force as the most likely to be useful.
---
Neloth and the others were waiting. "What happened? What did you see? Different people have very different experiences when reading these books."
I told him that I'd talked to Mora, and learned the second word of Bend Will. And that Mora wanted the "secrets of the Skaal" in return for the third. He'd also told me that I'd need it to be able even to reach Miraak, let alone defeat him.
"Hmph. What secrets could they have worth keeping from old Mora? Sounds like a bargain to me. Hermaeus Mora learns some fascinating new ways to skin a horker and you become the second most powerful Dragonborn that ever lived. Well, that gives me a lot to think about. I need to get back to Tel Mithryn. I have some ideas about how to locate more of these Black Books."
---
The ambush that hadn't happened in Apocrypha happened as we left Nchardak. A dragon swooped down and blasted us with frost. With a full party of mages, archer, and Dragonborn, the outcome wasn't in any doubt, and soon I was restoring Krosulhah and discovering that Miraak had somehow sent him to attack us. I didn't understand how Miraak, still trapped in Apochrypha, could influence dragons here.
Neloth presumed that he'd done it the same way he commanded the people to work on his shrines and temple. "There must be things here, like the Black Books, that communicate between the realms. Those Standing Stones served that purpose, until you did something to them, that I don't yet fully understand. Didn't you say that there was one still in Miraak's control?"
QUOTE(ghastley @ Jul 24 2017, 07:33 AM)
Acadian: The Black Books are a necessity for Kothet, or he might prefer to avoid them.
Zalphon: There are a few things to keep in mind when reading my writings here:
They are fan-fiction, so characters that everyone already knows aren't developed much, unless they exhibit significant changes from the way they behave in the game. So Brelyna, for example, is much the same character, but is given a bit more room to develop, although she is still constrained by the game's quests. I may also take a few swipes at the game mechanics, when appropriate. They don't always advance the story.
They are "commercials" for my mods - in this case "Dremora Hearthfires" - and often detail what the test character experienced, rather than having an over-arching story in mind from the beginning. Some characters just take over - like Clark did in the Gweden Report.
Oh I see; I apologize for misunderstanding the endeavor's goals and will suitably change how I approach the story in my reviews.
Another creepy crawl through Moraland. I must admit that was an interesting place.
I’m sure Kothet was glad to be reunited with his gang.
Like Neloth suggests, I find it hard to believe that Mora’s motive for the ‘deal’ he posed was to learn a new method of skinning horker from the Skaal.
Hi, Zalphon!
I’m sure Kothet was glad to be reunited with his gang.
Like Neloth suggests, I find it hard to believe that Mora’s motive for the ‘deal’ he posed was to learn a new method of skinning horker from the Skaal.
Hi, Zalphon!
QUOTE(Acadian @ Jul 24 2017, 01:12 PM)
Hi, Zalphon!
Long time, no talk, Acadian.
Want to hit me up in PMs so that we don't clutter the thread?
I'm still behind, but now they are in Solstheim at least. Interesting the part when it says "we've been summoned hundreds of times," in response to inquiries about why they weren't feeling whatever it is that's bothering Brel
I never been to this island yet, so there are some creatures with tentacles?
Yikes.
I never been to this island yet, so there are some creatures with tentacles?
Yikes.
Acadian: Storn explains Mora's motive, as far as it's known, in this one. "Gotta have 'em all!"
Zalphon: No problem, it's valid criticism anyway.
Renee: Tentacles are a Hermaeus Mora thing. And only seen if you have Dragonborn installed. With that, the aspect of HM himself gets changed (and he has tentacles).
------------
Previously: Kothet read another Black Book and visited Apocrypha again. He returned with a word of Bend Will, and an offer from Hermaeus Mora for the third.
-------------
48 - Skaal Village
We travelled back to the Skaal village to tell Storn what Hermaeus Mora had said.
"What are the 'secrets of the Skaal?'" I asked him
"Ancient lore, handed down from shaman to shaman since the All-Maker first gave us Solstheim. How to talk to the wind, how to listen to the earth - these are our secrets. Nothing of power or mastery."
"Why would Hermaeus Mora want your secrets?"
"We know him as Herma-Mora, the Demon of Knowledge. It is in his nature to horde secrets to himself. Their value to him is of no consequence. The very fact that the Skaal have kept knowledge from him has merely increased his desire to have it."
"My experience of him is that he thinks that knowledge exists only if you can write it down in a book. How could you ever write down your secrets?"
"That I do not know either, but since Herma-Mora doesn't know these secrets, he doesn't know what kind they are. Perhaps he believes they can be written."
I told Storn that I needed to do a lot more preparation before I was ready to confront Miraak, so any decision on the secrets wouldn't be needed soon. There were still more words of power to learn, and Black Books to read.
---
Now that the Earth Stone outside Raven Rock was cleansed, there was a good chance that the townsfolk would be a bit more willing to talk with us about Miraak. We headed back there to ask around for clues to more word walls and Black Books. We needed to tell Captain Veleth about General Falx Carius, as well.
Glover Mallory, the blacksmith, didn't know of any word walls or Black Books, but he did have a story to tell us about how he arrived here on Solstheim. He'd learned how to work Bonemold from a Dunmer over on the mainland, but didn't find any demand for it, so he'd come over to the island looking for work. He'd found enough trade supplying the Redoran guard, and stayed. He had a recipe for an improved version of Bonemold, but it had been stolen from him, and the thief had run off to the North.
"If you go looking for him, you might find some Stalhrim on your travels, too," he told us.
Brelyna had heard of that. "It's like ice, but it doesn't melt"
"If you've ever slipped and fallen on your ass, you'll know how hard ice is, even before you add magic. It would make great armour, apart from the melting. So mages tried to enchant it to resist heat. They failed, of course. It turned out you'd take a lifetime to do it that way."
"So how did Stalhrim happen?" she asked.
"Well, you know how when someone dies, there's magic left in them, unless they were soul-trapped? If you bury enough people together in the same tomb, that starts turning them into draugr. The Ancient Nords figured they could stop that, by sealing the coffins with ice.
"It actually worked, and there was another effect they hadn't expected. A dead person does have forever to turn ice into Stalhrim. But they don't know when to stop, so that stuff gets so hard you can't work it with a normal pickaxe. So they had to make special pickaxes to cut it. I had one of those, but I lent it to Crescius Caerellius while I fixed his, and he hasn't given it back. Could you persuade him it's about time he did? It's not like he's digging up anything in Raven Rock mine these days."
---
We went off into the mine to find Crescius. Grover had told us he was quite old for a human, so he'd probably know a lot about the island, having lived here all his life.
Crescius was a bit reluctant to return the pickaxe, doubting that Grover had obtained it honestly in the first place. I reminded him that he hadn't either, and he relented, but not before asking us if we'd help him out, too. He had evidence that the decision the East Empire Company made to close down the mine wasn't based on it being worked out, but something more suspicious. He had a key to some door down in the mine that his great-grandfather had left behind, but he'd never been able to find the lock that it fitted. That and a letter were all that he had to go on.
The letter had been written by Gratian Caerellius to the East Empire Company, but he'd never sent it. He'd been lost in a rock-fall in the mine before he could do that. It said that some kind of ruins had been found down there, and asked for an investigation.
The mention of ruins was enough to get my interest. That was the sort of place to find word walls and Black Books. I agreed to continue the search for him, and we set off down the main shaft. We could return Mallory's pickaxe when we came back out.
---
Zahra was not happy to find spiders in the mine, but she hurled fireballs and got it out of her system. She let me kill the skeever.
We didn't pass much except for empty crates and barrels. The ore veins seemed to be pretty well exhausted, and sections had already been boarded off. Since Crescius hadn't found anything down here, I decided that I'd look behind the boards, and knocked them down with my war-hammer. Just a bit further on, we found the gate that the key unlocked.
Beyond the gate, it didn't look like mine-workings any more. This was the ruin that Gratian had mentioned in his letter, and it was soon clear why the Company had seled it back off. It was full of draugr.
"And traps," Ranyu noted. "Nice of that draugr to point it out to us."
We let the spiked gate swing back, and trod carefully around the trigger, as we engaged the next wave of draugr. Nothing we couldn't handle, but there did seem to be a lot of them. Especially in the next room, where they were seated all around the walls,
I was glad we still had Mallory's special Ancient Nordic Pickaxe, as we found a Stalhrim-covered coffin against the wall in the next room. I hacked at it for ages, but eventually managed to collect the rare material. I wanted to take it back to the smith with the pickaxe, and see what he could do with it.
Brelyna and Zahra were more interested in the potions and ingredients on the tables, and took advantage of the alchemy table there to make a few more potions before we moved on.
Zalphon: No problem, it's valid criticism anyway.
Renee: Tentacles are a Hermaeus Mora thing. And only seen if you have Dragonborn installed. With that, the aspect of HM himself gets changed (and he has tentacles).
------------
Previously: Kothet read another Black Book and visited Apocrypha again. He returned with a word of Bend Will, and an offer from Hermaeus Mora for the third.
-------------
48 - Skaal Village
We travelled back to the Skaal village to tell Storn what Hermaeus Mora had said.
"What are the 'secrets of the Skaal?'" I asked him
"Ancient lore, handed down from shaman to shaman since the All-Maker first gave us Solstheim. How to talk to the wind, how to listen to the earth - these are our secrets. Nothing of power or mastery."
"Why would Hermaeus Mora want your secrets?"
"We know him as Herma-Mora, the Demon of Knowledge. It is in his nature to horde secrets to himself. Their value to him is of no consequence. The very fact that the Skaal have kept knowledge from him has merely increased his desire to have it."
"My experience of him is that he thinks that knowledge exists only if you can write it down in a book. How could you ever write down your secrets?"
"That I do not know either, but since Herma-Mora doesn't know these secrets, he doesn't know what kind they are. Perhaps he believes they can be written."
I told Storn that I needed to do a lot more preparation before I was ready to confront Miraak, so any decision on the secrets wouldn't be needed soon. There were still more words of power to learn, and Black Books to read.
---
Now that the Earth Stone outside Raven Rock was cleansed, there was a good chance that the townsfolk would be a bit more willing to talk with us about Miraak. We headed back there to ask around for clues to more word walls and Black Books. We needed to tell Captain Veleth about General Falx Carius, as well.
Glover Mallory, the blacksmith, didn't know of any word walls or Black Books, but he did have a story to tell us about how he arrived here on Solstheim. He'd learned how to work Bonemold from a Dunmer over on the mainland, but didn't find any demand for it, so he'd come over to the island looking for work. He'd found enough trade supplying the Redoran guard, and stayed. He had a recipe for an improved version of Bonemold, but it had been stolen from him, and the thief had run off to the North.
"If you go looking for him, you might find some Stalhrim on your travels, too," he told us.
Brelyna had heard of that. "It's like ice, but it doesn't melt"
"If you've ever slipped and fallen on your ass, you'll know how hard ice is, even before you add magic. It would make great armour, apart from the melting. So mages tried to enchant it to resist heat. They failed, of course. It turned out you'd take a lifetime to do it that way."
"So how did Stalhrim happen?" she asked.
"Well, you know how when someone dies, there's magic left in them, unless they were soul-trapped? If you bury enough people together in the same tomb, that starts turning them into draugr. The Ancient Nords figured they could stop that, by sealing the coffins with ice.
"It actually worked, and there was another effect they hadn't expected. A dead person does have forever to turn ice into Stalhrim. But they don't know when to stop, so that stuff gets so hard you can't work it with a normal pickaxe. So they had to make special pickaxes to cut it. I had one of those, but I lent it to Crescius Caerellius while I fixed his, and he hasn't given it back. Could you persuade him it's about time he did? It's not like he's digging up anything in Raven Rock mine these days."
---
We went off into the mine to find Crescius. Grover had told us he was quite old for a human, so he'd probably know a lot about the island, having lived here all his life.
Crescius was a bit reluctant to return the pickaxe, doubting that Grover had obtained it honestly in the first place. I reminded him that he hadn't either, and he relented, but not before asking us if we'd help him out, too. He had evidence that the decision the East Empire Company made to close down the mine wasn't based on it being worked out, but something more suspicious. He had a key to some door down in the mine that his great-grandfather had left behind, but he'd never been able to find the lock that it fitted. That and a letter were all that he had to go on.
The letter had been written by Gratian Caerellius to the East Empire Company, but he'd never sent it. He'd been lost in a rock-fall in the mine before he could do that. It said that some kind of ruins had been found down there, and asked for an investigation.
The mention of ruins was enough to get my interest. That was the sort of place to find word walls and Black Books. I agreed to continue the search for him, and we set off down the main shaft. We could return Mallory's pickaxe when we came back out.
---
Zahra was not happy to find spiders in the mine, but she hurled fireballs and got it out of her system. She let me kill the skeever.
We didn't pass much except for empty crates and barrels. The ore veins seemed to be pretty well exhausted, and sections had already been boarded off. Since Crescius hadn't found anything down here, I decided that I'd look behind the boards, and knocked them down with my war-hammer. Just a bit further on, we found the gate that the key unlocked.
Beyond the gate, it didn't look like mine-workings any more. This was the ruin that Gratian had mentioned in his letter, and it was soon clear why the Company had seled it back off. It was full of draugr.
"And traps," Ranyu noted. "Nice of that draugr to point it out to us."
We let the spiked gate swing back, and trod carefully around the trigger, as we engaged the next wave of draugr. Nothing we couldn't handle, but there did seem to be a lot of them. Especially in the next room, where they were seated all around the walls,
I was glad we still had Mallory's special Ancient Nordic Pickaxe, as we found a Stalhrim-covered coffin against the wall in the next room. I hacked at it for ages, but eventually managed to collect the rare material. I wanted to take it back to the smith with the pickaxe, and see what he could do with it.
Brelyna and Zahra were more interested in the potions and ingredients on the tables, and took advantage of the alchemy table there to make a few more potions before we moved on.
Loved the insightful discussion about stalhrim.
Then the fearsome foursome does some dungeon crawling and actually finds some!
Then the fearsome foursome does some dungeon crawling and actually finds some!
Whoa, that's pretty intense. They seal them up with ice so they don't turn into draugr! I didn't know that they became undead in the first place as a group like that, but it does make a lot of sense.
Renee: Sometimes you have necromancers around, but they're usually fighting each other, so the draugr have to be doing it for themselves.
Acadian: I don't know why the developers decided to put one instance of Stalhrim down there, but they did. It gets another mention in this one. I think all the Stalhrim is placed as coffin-sealer, probably just so they'd only need the one mesh.
----------
Previously: Kothet and company had entered Raven Rock Mine to look for traces of Crescius' ancestor.
----------
49 -Bloodskal
There were a couple of spell-casting traps ahead, and I considered using my Become Ethereal shout to go and disarm them, but I let Ranyu try knocking the soul gems down from outside their range. He's a better archer than I am, by a long way, and soon had the problem solved.
The iron door beyond led to a chamber patrolled by some of the nastiest draugr I'd encountered so far, all equipped with ebony weapons and aware of our presence. I set Ranyu to keep the archer occupied, while I engaged the first of the sword-wielders. The mages would take whatever targets offered themselves.
Grabbing the initiative can make a lot of difference in a fight, so I charged the draugr, to make sure I got in the first blow. My heavy hammer made him stagger, so I had time to swing again. That still wasn't enough to finish him, but he was falling back each time and not able to riposte.
So this would be a question of whether I had enough stamina to keep up these power attacks, or whether he'd get his turn. If I took the time to swig a potion, I knew what would happen. When he fell, I did down a potion or two before looking around for the next one. I nearly had the archer fall on top of me, as Zahra's fireball knocked him off the bridge above.
So now they were down to one, and he'd sheltered behind a pillar from the barrage of spells. I went around behind him, and bashed him into the open. That was the last of him.
The nearby gate was locked, but Brelyna spotted a pedestal on the ledge opposite that looked like it had some kind of handle on top. I crossed the bridge and turned it, and the gate opened.
Past some more traps (but no more draugr) we came to a narrow passage that twisted and turned its way deeper underground. At the end, we emerged into a large chamber where waterfalls cascaded into a stream that disappeared underground. At the end of the chamber was a large ominous-looking door, and a skelton lying nearby.
We jumped down off the ledge before we really thought about how we'd get back up if that door wouldn't open. It probably wouldn't be impossible, if Ranyu stood on my shoulders, and the women climbed up that way, but we'd rather not have to do it. And that wouldn't have been an option for anyone who came here on his own.
The diary I found next to the skeleton suggested that was exactly what had happened to him. This was Gratian Caerellius, the ancestor of the old mine foreman who'd sent us down here. He come here with a companion, who fallen to the draugr somewhere back in the tomb. And he'd found an ancient sword, the Bloodskal Blade, also lying next to his skeleton, which had strange powers. He'd thought they were the key to getting out again, but, by the time he reached the door, he was too weak to use the sword. He had succumbed to the draugr before he could escape.
I picked up the blade and swung it, to see if it emitted the energy pulse that the diary described. Sure enough, a ribbon of light flew from the tip of the blade and struck the door. A piece of the surrounding rock slid aside. I swung again, and the energy was again released, but nothing changed on the door. Then I understood why. I'd swung the blade in the wrong direction. My swings had to match the glowing lines on the door-frame to make anything happen.
With everyone else standing well out of the way, I swung furiously at each of the lines, and soon the only one left was down the middle of the door itself. I was getting a bit short of stamina by this time, but I had just enough for the final swing. The door opened, to a long corridor of swinging blades.
"Become Ethereal" took me through them, and I used the lever at the end to turn them off for my companions. I just hoped I wouldn't need that shout again before we emerged, as it took forever to recharge.
When I used the lever, it had also opened the door into a large chamber, and I could see a word wall at the end of it. The majority of the room was flooded, but the edges were raised and we could move along next to the wall. However, before we got half-way, a dragon priest emerged from the central pool and attacked. Since my new weapon gave me a ranged attack, albeit a rather inaccurate one, I used it, while my companions hurled fireballs, frost and arrows.
Zahkrisos threw lightning back at us. Fortunately, most of it was directed at me, so the mages weren't hampered by any loss of magicka. It did make me rather eager to put an end to him, and I waded into the water to use the sword as a sword. It wasn't as deep as I feared, and we soon had him cornered, and weakening.
When he fell, I was able to approach the word wall, and learn a second word of Dragon Aspect, which was that armour spell that Miraak had shown me when we first met. If he thought it was important and impressive, I should take note of that.
One thing I'd already noted was that Dragon Aspect increased the damage of power attacks, which was a strange thing for a mage. I'd seen that Miraak carried a one-handed sword, but he also sported a staff, and wore robes, rather than armour. So it was clear which direction his preference lay. Perhaps this shout, and the sword that we'd just found, were the keys to defeating him.
---
I wasn't expecting to find a Black Book as well as a word wall, but perhaps Miraak's temple should have made me think differently. A pedestal on our way out held the book "Waking Dreams". I told Brelyna and Ranyu what to expect when I opened it, and did so.
Lurkers, seekers, scryes, and a book at the end, just like the one at Nchardak, except without all the "chapters". And this time I knew what to expect, and where to rest, and where to look for fonts. Progress was tedious and not what you'd call comfortable, but at least predictable. The reward at the end was pleasant and unexpected, however.
The book that let me return to Solstheim also taught me a new power - Companion's Insight - that meant that I'd never accidentally injure my companions in battle. That might prove important now I had the Bloodskal Blade. That energy discharge was a dangerous feature, as I had little control over when it happened.
---
The reavers inhabiting the ruins on the way out were a nuisance, but little more, to a party like ours. On the other hand, they didn't have any decent loot to collect, either.
Since Neloth had expressed an interest in collecting the Black Books, once I'd used them, we figured we might get more from him than we had from the reavers, and set off for Tel Mithryn as soon as we emerged. We stopped in Raven Rock on the way to return Grover's Ancient Nordic Pickaxe, and tell Crescius what we'd found out about Gratian's true story.
Crescius was delighted with our news and especially that the mine wasn't worked out as the East Empire Company had declared. "I knew I could still smell the ore."
Grover told us to keep the pickaxe for now, and maybe mine some more Stallhrim with it. He'd like to know what could be made from it, too. I was surprised that he didn't know, if he had the pickaxe. "Never found any Stahlrim to use it on," he told us. "I think it's all up in the northern part of the island."
I pointed out that I'd found it in the ruins beneath the mine.
"Well you won't catch me in any of those ruins, any more than trudging through the snows in the north."
---
We showed the Black Book we'd found to Neloth.
"Excellent! I'll just make a copy for myself. It's far too dangerous to carry the real book around. Of course, I'm sure you can handle yourself. Of course you can. Of course. Now, take this for your efforts, and we'll call the matter closed."
When asked if he knew of any others, he replied: "Yes. Hermaeus Mora is devious, but then so am I. Now, it's only a rumour of a whisper of a conjecture. But I think this is the place. Now, hurry. That book might contain the final secrets of Xarxes, for all we know."
---
White Ridge Barrow was well to the North, and West. There was also a ridge of mountains between here and there, and we'd have to go a bit further North to the only pass through it. That would take us to the familiar (to me and Zahra) territory near Saering's Watch on the way, so there was a good chance it was still clear of enemies.
Once we passed there, of course, it would be new lands, and we didn't know what to expect. Well, we should have expected Rieklings, I suppose. Zahra and I had met them while we were cleansing the All-Maker Stones, both on this side of the island and at the Beast Stone. However they seemed to be more numerous up in the North.
We declined to enter their lair at Benkongerike, and just passed by (for now). I suspected I might have to go back there at some time, but as long as the little creatures didn't attack me, I wasn't going hunting for them. Turning toward the ridge, instead of Saering's Watch this time, we soon saw White Ridge Barrow ahead of us.
Acadian: I don't know why the developers decided to put one instance of Stalhrim down there, but they did. It gets another mention in this one. I think all the Stalhrim is placed as coffin-sealer, probably just so they'd only need the one mesh.
----------
Previously: Kothet and company had entered Raven Rock Mine to look for traces of Crescius' ancestor.
----------
49 -Bloodskal
There were a couple of spell-casting traps ahead, and I considered using my Become Ethereal shout to go and disarm them, but I let Ranyu try knocking the soul gems down from outside their range. He's a better archer than I am, by a long way, and soon had the problem solved.
The iron door beyond led to a chamber patrolled by some of the nastiest draugr I'd encountered so far, all equipped with ebony weapons and aware of our presence. I set Ranyu to keep the archer occupied, while I engaged the first of the sword-wielders. The mages would take whatever targets offered themselves.
Grabbing the initiative can make a lot of difference in a fight, so I charged the draugr, to make sure I got in the first blow. My heavy hammer made him stagger, so I had time to swing again. That still wasn't enough to finish him, but he was falling back each time and not able to riposte.
So this would be a question of whether I had enough stamina to keep up these power attacks, or whether he'd get his turn. If I took the time to swig a potion, I knew what would happen. When he fell, I did down a potion or two before looking around for the next one. I nearly had the archer fall on top of me, as Zahra's fireball knocked him off the bridge above.
So now they were down to one, and he'd sheltered behind a pillar from the barrage of spells. I went around behind him, and bashed him into the open. That was the last of him.
The nearby gate was locked, but Brelyna spotted a pedestal on the ledge opposite that looked like it had some kind of handle on top. I crossed the bridge and turned it, and the gate opened.
Past some more traps (but no more draugr) we came to a narrow passage that twisted and turned its way deeper underground. At the end, we emerged into a large chamber where waterfalls cascaded into a stream that disappeared underground. At the end of the chamber was a large ominous-looking door, and a skelton lying nearby.
We jumped down off the ledge before we really thought about how we'd get back up if that door wouldn't open. It probably wouldn't be impossible, if Ranyu stood on my shoulders, and the women climbed up that way, but we'd rather not have to do it. And that wouldn't have been an option for anyone who came here on his own.
The diary I found next to the skeleton suggested that was exactly what had happened to him. This was Gratian Caerellius, the ancestor of the old mine foreman who'd sent us down here. He come here with a companion, who fallen to the draugr somewhere back in the tomb. And he'd found an ancient sword, the Bloodskal Blade, also lying next to his skeleton, which had strange powers. He'd thought they were the key to getting out again, but, by the time he reached the door, he was too weak to use the sword. He had succumbed to the draugr before he could escape.
I picked up the blade and swung it, to see if it emitted the energy pulse that the diary described. Sure enough, a ribbon of light flew from the tip of the blade and struck the door. A piece of the surrounding rock slid aside. I swung again, and the energy was again released, but nothing changed on the door. Then I understood why. I'd swung the blade in the wrong direction. My swings had to match the glowing lines on the door-frame to make anything happen.
With everyone else standing well out of the way, I swung furiously at each of the lines, and soon the only one left was down the middle of the door itself. I was getting a bit short of stamina by this time, but I had just enough for the final swing. The door opened, to a long corridor of swinging blades.
"Become Ethereal" took me through them, and I used the lever at the end to turn them off for my companions. I just hoped I wouldn't need that shout again before we emerged, as it took forever to recharge.
When I used the lever, it had also opened the door into a large chamber, and I could see a word wall at the end of it. The majority of the room was flooded, but the edges were raised and we could move along next to the wall. However, before we got half-way, a dragon priest emerged from the central pool and attacked. Since my new weapon gave me a ranged attack, albeit a rather inaccurate one, I used it, while my companions hurled fireballs, frost and arrows.
Zahkrisos threw lightning back at us. Fortunately, most of it was directed at me, so the mages weren't hampered by any loss of magicka. It did make me rather eager to put an end to him, and I waded into the water to use the sword as a sword. It wasn't as deep as I feared, and we soon had him cornered, and weakening.
When he fell, I was able to approach the word wall, and learn a second word of Dragon Aspect, which was that armour spell that Miraak had shown me when we first met. If he thought it was important and impressive, I should take note of that.
One thing I'd already noted was that Dragon Aspect increased the damage of power attacks, which was a strange thing for a mage. I'd seen that Miraak carried a one-handed sword, but he also sported a staff, and wore robes, rather than armour. So it was clear which direction his preference lay. Perhaps this shout, and the sword that we'd just found, were the keys to defeating him.
---
I wasn't expecting to find a Black Book as well as a word wall, but perhaps Miraak's temple should have made me think differently. A pedestal on our way out held the book "Waking Dreams". I told Brelyna and Ranyu what to expect when I opened it, and did so.
Lurkers, seekers, scryes, and a book at the end, just like the one at Nchardak, except without all the "chapters". And this time I knew what to expect, and where to rest, and where to look for fonts. Progress was tedious and not what you'd call comfortable, but at least predictable. The reward at the end was pleasant and unexpected, however.
The book that let me return to Solstheim also taught me a new power - Companion's Insight - that meant that I'd never accidentally injure my companions in battle. That might prove important now I had the Bloodskal Blade. That energy discharge was a dangerous feature, as I had little control over when it happened.
---
The reavers inhabiting the ruins on the way out were a nuisance, but little more, to a party like ours. On the other hand, they didn't have any decent loot to collect, either.
Since Neloth had expressed an interest in collecting the Black Books, once I'd used them, we figured we might get more from him than we had from the reavers, and set off for Tel Mithryn as soon as we emerged. We stopped in Raven Rock on the way to return Grover's Ancient Nordic Pickaxe, and tell Crescius what we'd found out about Gratian's true story.
Crescius was delighted with our news and especially that the mine wasn't worked out as the East Empire Company had declared. "I knew I could still smell the ore."
Grover told us to keep the pickaxe for now, and maybe mine some more Stallhrim with it. He'd like to know what could be made from it, too. I was surprised that he didn't know, if he had the pickaxe. "Never found any Stahlrim to use it on," he told us. "I think it's all up in the northern part of the island."
I pointed out that I'd found it in the ruins beneath the mine.
"Well you won't catch me in any of those ruins, any more than trudging through the snows in the north."
---
We showed the Black Book we'd found to Neloth.
"Excellent! I'll just make a copy for myself. It's far too dangerous to carry the real book around. Of course, I'm sure you can handle yourself. Of course you can. Of course. Now, take this for your efforts, and we'll call the matter closed."
When asked if he knew of any others, he replied: "Yes. Hermaeus Mora is devious, but then so am I. Now, it's only a rumour of a whisper of a conjecture. But I think this is the place. Now, hurry. That book might contain the final secrets of Xarxes, for all we know."
---
White Ridge Barrow was well to the North, and West. There was also a ridge of mountains between here and there, and we'd have to go a bit further North to the only pass through it. That would take us to the familiar (to me and Zahra) territory near Saering's Watch on the way, so there was a good chance it was still clear of enemies.
Once we passed there, of course, it would be new lands, and we didn't know what to expect. Well, we should have expected Rieklings, I suppose. Zahra and I had met them while we were cleansing the All-Maker Stones, both on this side of the island and at the Beast Stone. However they seemed to be more numerous up in the North.
We declined to enter their lair at Benkongerike, and just passed by (for now). I suspected I might have to go back there at some time, but as long as the little creatures didn't attack me, I wasn't going hunting for them. Turning toward the ridge, instead of Saering's Watch this time, we soon saw White Ridge Barrow ahead of us.
More nice teamwork from the Fearsome Foursome!
Nice explanation regarding how Gratian perished by being unable to progress forward nor return the way he had come.
A productive delve! Bloodskal Blade, dragon priest, word wall and a black book.
No rest for this team however, as they prepare to enter White Ridge Barrow.
Nits:
’i {I} set Ranyu to keep the archer occupied, while I engaged the first of the sword-wielders.’
’A pedestal on out {our} way out held the book "Waking Dreams".’
Nice explanation regarding how Gratian perished by being unable to progress forward nor return the way he had come.
A productive delve! Bloodskal Blade, dragon priest, word wall and a black book.
No rest for this team however, as they prepare to enter White Ridge Barrow.
Nits:
’i {I} set Ranyu to keep the archer occupied, while I engaged the first of the sword-wielders.’
’A pedestal on out {our} way out held the book "Waking Dreams".’
Acadian: They're going to reach diminishing returns soon.
------------
Previously: Kothet and co. are looking for word walls and Black Books to try and match Miraak's powers before confronting him.
------------
50 - White Ridge Barrow
I knew as soon as we entered that Zahra wasn't going to like the place. There were spider webs everywhere, and ominous egg-sacs glowing in some of the corners. That suggested we weren't just going to be meeting the regular spiders she'd just about come to terms with, but something with a bit of magicka involved. They'd obviously killed a number of the reavers that had come to explore the place, as we found several bodies just inside.
The jumping, exploding fire spiders had her shrieking and hiding behind me. Brelyna and Ranyu took the lead, with Ranyu attempting to use his bow to neutralise the threat before the sacs could hatch. Any that escaped were quickly zapped with one of Brelyna's shock staves.
As we ventured deeper into the tomb, the good news was that the spiders had dealt with the majority of the draugr for us. The bad news was the spiders, and that the few draugr remaining were the tougher ones. Those were my job, as the others seemed to be dealing with the spiders well enough. Zahra didn't mind helping with the draugr, either.
We did encounter a survivor of the reavers, but he didn't appear to be grateful for our intervention, and attacked us. Now he's not a survivor any more.
---
In the next section of the ruin, things began to make some sense. We ran into a Dunmer sorceress who appeared to have some kind of control over the spiders, and have enthralled the reavers here too. They didn't look undead, but they didn't look normal either. The had a greenish glow about them, as well as the mindless aggression of a commanded minion.
Once we'd dealt with the mage, we found a key on her corpse, as well as a journal that hinted of a power deeper in the ruin. It suggested another dragon priest and possibly a word wall and/or Black Book, as well as some ex-colleagues of the sorceress, who were using the rather unique spiders in some kind of experiments. I assumed the key would open a door to the mages' laboratory, or something similar. The Ancient Nords went for more elaborate means for opening their inner sanctum.
By the time we actually found the laboratory, Brelyna was unable to contain her laughter every time Zahra scuttled behind me to avoid another spider. Despite what it said in Menlar's journal (she was the first sorceress we encountered) we only found one more of the mages and he was dead. Once we came across the key to the cage he was in, we read his journal, and discovered that his name was Servos Rendas, he was the other Dunmer's brother, and he'd been working on experiments with the spiders also.
Combining the spider pods with gems (and salt) imbued the creatures that hatched with magical properties, ranging from elemental auras to mind control. The latter accounted for all the commanded reavers we'd been fighting.
Neither of them had dared to open the passage through to where they'd heard chanting from "the main chamber", as he described it. That reminded me of word walls, and their attendant Dragon Priests. Since that was what we came here for, we weren't at all put off. I'm sure Zahra would prefer a Dragon Priest to a spider, anyway.
Brelyna was fascinated with the embuing apparatus and we had to drag her with us. "It will still be here when we come back," I reassured her.
---
There's not much to say about our fight with Dukaan, the Dragon Priest. Short, but intense, and at least this time the room wasn't flooded. The word wall taught me Cyclone, an elemental effect, and not one I considered particularly interesting. I hoped the Black Book on the other side of the room would be more useful.
"The Sallow Regent" was the title, which gave me little clue what to expect. The region of Apocrphya it took me to was dark, except for the little area under the floating lamp where I arrived. The darkness obscured any dangers more than a few dozen yards away, and also gave me no clue as to which direction I needed to proceed. So when the lamp started to drift away, I just followed it. It soon drifted off the edge of the platform, out over the "sea" that I knew would harm me if I tried to follow.
That's when I discovered that the darkness would do the same. Not as rapidly as the black water of the sea, or I'd have just tried to follow the lamp, but enough. I ran towards another lamp that seemed close, but narrowly avoided falling off the edge of the platform. With no light source of my own, and no way to proceed, I just opened the Black Book again, to return.
I discussed my dilemma with the others. I couldn't carry a torch, as I used two-handed weapons, and so I hadn't brought one with me. I didn't know any light spells, either. Brelyna did, but couldn't teach it to me.
"Could one of us go instead?" Zahra asked. "Ranyu would have the same problem with carrying a torch and using his bow, but I wouldn't"
"I don't think it would be a good idea for either you or Ranyu to try. None of us could die in Apocrypha. We'd just get 'banished' back to our own realm. But in your two cases, that would be the Deadlands, and neither I nor Brelyna would know that had happened. I'm pretty sure that I'd be sent back here, as that's always happened before, and of course Brelyna is a mortal who we know belongs here."
"So I could?" Brelyna asked.
I was reluctant to risk a mortal, but what I said about not dying in Apocrypha was true. You wouldn't really be there, because of the way the portal magic worked, and defeat would just break the connection, or something like that. I just wasn't sure what would happen to somebody who was summoned to this realm in the first place.
Zahra grabbed the book. She didn't want to risk Brelyna either. But the book wouldn't open for her. She reluctantly handed it over to Brelyna.
---
The Dunmer was back with us even faster than I'd returned. "You didn't say anything about tentacles!" she protested.
I hadn't seen any. It was much too dark for that, but apparently she'd cast a fairly strong light spell as soon as she arrived, which revealed a Seeker or two. And things with tentacles had much the same effect on Brelyna as spiders did on Zahra. She'd not seen any of them before, so the shock was heightened by their strangeness.
I carefully explained what kind of opposition she could expect in Mora's realm, with their strengths and weaknesses. The Lurkers would be susceptible to a good ranged frost spell, and would probably never get close enough to do her any harm. The seekers would be like any spell-casters, harmed and incapacitated by shock. Their only spell would drain her health, not her magicka. And I told her about their decoys, and to keep attacking the original.
Zahra held her laughter until Brelyna had opened the book again, but I suspect she heard, judging by the look she gave her when she returned. "OK, I won't laugh about you and spiders, if you won't laugh about tentacles. Deal?"
Brelyna hadn't found any word walls, or anything helpful against Miraak. She'd only had to deal with three or four of the creatures, and had done so comfortably at long range. The book at the end had given her an ability that reduced the cost of spells and enchantments. It could have given me a small boost to combat skills, but she doubted that I had any room for improvement there. Which was true; I couldn't raise my two-handed skill any higher, and that was what I'd be using.
------------
Previously: Kothet and co. are looking for word walls and Black Books to try and match Miraak's powers before confronting him.
------------
50 - White Ridge Barrow
I knew as soon as we entered that Zahra wasn't going to like the place. There were spider webs everywhere, and ominous egg-sacs glowing in some of the corners. That suggested we weren't just going to be meeting the regular spiders she'd just about come to terms with, but something with a bit of magicka involved. They'd obviously killed a number of the reavers that had come to explore the place, as we found several bodies just inside.
The jumping, exploding fire spiders had her shrieking and hiding behind me. Brelyna and Ranyu took the lead, with Ranyu attempting to use his bow to neutralise the threat before the sacs could hatch. Any that escaped were quickly zapped with one of Brelyna's shock staves.
As we ventured deeper into the tomb, the good news was that the spiders had dealt with the majority of the draugr for us. The bad news was the spiders, and that the few draugr remaining were the tougher ones. Those were my job, as the others seemed to be dealing with the spiders well enough. Zahra didn't mind helping with the draugr, either.
We did encounter a survivor of the reavers, but he didn't appear to be grateful for our intervention, and attacked us. Now he's not a survivor any more.
---
In the next section of the ruin, things began to make some sense. We ran into a Dunmer sorceress who appeared to have some kind of control over the spiders, and have enthralled the reavers here too. They didn't look undead, but they didn't look normal either. The had a greenish glow about them, as well as the mindless aggression of a commanded minion.
Once we'd dealt with the mage, we found a key on her corpse, as well as a journal that hinted of a power deeper in the ruin. It suggested another dragon priest and possibly a word wall and/or Black Book, as well as some ex-colleagues of the sorceress, who were using the rather unique spiders in some kind of experiments. I assumed the key would open a door to the mages' laboratory, or something similar. The Ancient Nords went for more elaborate means for opening their inner sanctum.
By the time we actually found the laboratory, Brelyna was unable to contain her laughter every time Zahra scuttled behind me to avoid another spider. Despite what it said in Menlar's journal (she was the first sorceress we encountered) we only found one more of the mages and he was dead. Once we came across the key to the cage he was in, we read his journal, and discovered that his name was Servos Rendas, he was the other Dunmer's brother, and he'd been working on experiments with the spiders also.
Combining the spider pods with gems (and salt) imbued the creatures that hatched with magical properties, ranging from elemental auras to mind control. The latter accounted for all the commanded reavers we'd been fighting.
Neither of them had dared to open the passage through to where they'd heard chanting from "the main chamber", as he described it. That reminded me of word walls, and their attendant Dragon Priests. Since that was what we came here for, we weren't at all put off. I'm sure Zahra would prefer a Dragon Priest to a spider, anyway.
Brelyna was fascinated with the embuing apparatus and we had to drag her with us. "It will still be here when we come back," I reassured her.
---
There's not much to say about our fight with Dukaan, the Dragon Priest. Short, but intense, and at least this time the room wasn't flooded. The word wall taught me Cyclone, an elemental effect, and not one I considered particularly interesting. I hoped the Black Book on the other side of the room would be more useful.
"The Sallow Regent" was the title, which gave me little clue what to expect. The region of Apocrphya it took me to was dark, except for the little area under the floating lamp where I arrived. The darkness obscured any dangers more than a few dozen yards away, and also gave me no clue as to which direction I needed to proceed. So when the lamp started to drift away, I just followed it. It soon drifted off the edge of the platform, out over the "sea" that I knew would harm me if I tried to follow.
That's when I discovered that the darkness would do the same. Not as rapidly as the black water of the sea, or I'd have just tried to follow the lamp, but enough. I ran towards another lamp that seemed close, but narrowly avoided falling off the edge of the platform. With no light source of my own, and no way to proceed, I just opened the Black Book again, to return.
I discussed my dilemma with the others. I couldn't carry a torch, as I used two-handed weapons, and so I hadn't brought one with me. I didn't know any light spells, either. Brelyna did, but couldn't teach it to me.
"Could one of us go instead?" Zahra asked. "Ranyu would have the same problem with carrying a torch and using his bow, but I wouldn't"
"I don't think it would be a good idea for either you or Ranyu to try. None of us could die in Apocrypha. We'd just get 'banished' back to our own realm. But in your two cases, that would be the Deadlands, and neither I nor Brelyna would know that had happened. I'm pretty sure that I'd be sent back here, as that's always happened before, and of course Brelyna is a mortal who we know belongs here."
"So I could?" Brelyna asked.
I was reluctant to risk a mortal, but what I said about not dying in Apocrypha was true. You wouldn't really be there, because of the way the portal magic worked, and defeat would just break the connection, or something like that. I just wasn't sure what would happen to somebody who was summoned to this realm in the first place.
Zahra grabbed the book. She didn't want to risk Brelyna either. But the book wouldn't open for her. She reluctantly handed it over to Brelyna.
---
The Dunmer was back with us even faster than I'd returned. "You didn't say anything about tentacles!" she protested.
I hadn't seen any. It was much too dark for that, but apparently she'd cast a fairly strong light spell as soon as she arrived, which revealed a Seeker or two. And things with tentacles had much the same effect on Brelyna as spiders did on Zahra. She'd not seen any of them before, so the shock was heightened by their strangeness.
I carefully explained what kind of opposition she could expect in Mora's realm, with their strengths and weaknesses. The Lurkers would be susceptible to a good ranged frost spell, and would probably never get close enough to do her any harm. The seekers would be like any spell-casters, harmed and incapacitated by shock. Their only spell would drain her health, not her magicka. And I told her about their decoys, and to keep attacking the original.
Zahra held her laughter until Brelyna had opened the book again, but I suspect she heard, judging by the look she gave her when she returned. "OK, I won't laugh about you and spiders, if you won't laugh about tentacles. Deal?"
Brelyna hadn't found any word walls, or anything helpful against Miraak. She'd only had to deal with three or four of the creatures, and had done so comfortably at long range. The book at the end had given her an ability that reduced the cost of spells and enchantments. It could have given me a small boost to combat skills, but she doubted that I had any room for improvement there. Which was true; I couldn't raise my two-handed skill any higher, and that was what I'd be using.
More high adventure for the foursome. Poor Zahira the Jiggly and those spiders - it does make her seem more human though - you know, for a dremora. Clever idea and a fun twist to send Brelyna the Lightbringer into the darkness to find that book. And I agree that tentacles are as creepy as spiders!
Acadian: Belyna's going to have to learn to teach spells, then she can just say "no" next time.
-------------
Previously: Kothet and company visited White Ridge Barrow, where ... spiders! ... and then tentacles!
-------------
51 - The Third Word
We discussed why Zahra had been unable to open the book. My theory was that it was because she wasn't of this realm, in which case Ranyu would have the same issue. Apparently I was now considered a valid resident of Mundus, perhaps because Mehrunes Dagon had bound me here. Certainly whenever I needed to be restored, this was where it happened.
"Can you use a book twice?" Brelyna asked.
In response, I took the book and opened it. It put me back at the start, so I just re-read it to come back out again. For Brelyna, it took her back to the end-point. And as expected, Ranyu couldn't open it at all.
All that started us wondering what would happen if we tried to read one of Neloth's copies of the books. Presumably nothing, as they wouldn't have the portal spell. And it was time to take him this one, too.
---
Neloth didn't have any additional information about the Black Books, nor any useful opinion as to whether it would help me to look for more. The word walls were a more promising path to defeating Miraak, but we had no way to determine where they were. So far I'd only encountered one above ground, at Saering's Watch, and we'd covered a large portion of the island already. Looking for more would not be easy.
I had two of the three words of Dragon Aspect, which gave me boosts to both offence and defence. I suspected the former would benefit me more than it did Miraak, but I had no clue what the third word would give him. Did I need it before the final confrontation?
I decided to consult Storn again. His wisdom was well-grounded, and not as self-centered as Neloth's.
---
Storn reminded me that I'd only get the third word of Bend Will from Mora himself, and he suspected that the same would be true of Dragon Aspect. I'd most likely have to go to Apochrypha for that, and maybe I'd need all of Bend Will to get to it.
And despite all he'd been trying while we were gone, there was nothing to be done about the Tree Stone. It remained under Miraak's influence, and that would only end with his defeat.
All this had brought him to the conclusion that the only way forward was to do what Hermaeus Mora wanted. He'd have to go to Apocrypha and tell him that the Skaal's secrets weren't the kind he thought they were.
"So it falls to me to be the one to give up the secrets to our ancient enemy. I do not know if I have the strength to face him. The Tree Stone is still corrupted... the land is still out of balance. But with the other five restored... it may be enough. It will have to do. I'm sure Herma-Mora won't be pleased, but perhaps he'll see reason, and let you deal with Miraak."
Freya wasn't as hopeful. She regarded Mora as completely evil. "He doesn't even know what evil means," I told her. "Knowledge is all that matters to him, and the consequences of acquiring it are of no importance at all."
Storn added "Yes. The Skaal also tell of the day when we must finally give up our secrets. When Herma-Mora finally wins. As shaman, it is my duty to guard these secrets, but also to decide when it is necessary to give them up. I believe that time is now. If I am wrong, may my ancestors forgive me. Give me the book. I will read it, and speak to old Herma-Mora myself. I will make sure he lives up to his part of the bargain."
"I hope you know what you're doing," I told him.
"That is my hope as well. I am trusting you will make this sacrifice worthwhile."
Frea still wasn't convinced. "Father, you must not do this. That book is... wrong. Evil. Against everything that you have taught me my whole life."
"I must, Frea. It is the only way to free Solstheim forever from Miraak's shadow. There comes a time when everything must change. Nothing that lives remains the same forever. Do not fear for me, my daughter. This is the destiny that the All-Maker has laid out for me."
"I stand beside you, father, as always."
"I am ready for whatever the foul master of this book has in store for me."
Storn opened the book I had given to him. I had only watched someone else doing this once, when Brelyna had read the book at White Ridge Barrow, but Zahra had told me that the others had seen the same thing when I'd read the books. Tentacles had pulled me through the portal into Apocrypha, leaving only a transparent image behind.
This was different. The tentacles looked the same, but they didn't behave the same way. There were more of them, too. Most wrapped themselves around Storn, pinning him in place, but the last one reared back like a snake, and struck at Storn's head, piercing it.
Hermaeus Mora appeared and spoke to me. "Dragonborn, you have delivered me the gift I requested. In return, I keep my promise, as befits a Prince of Oblivion: I give you the Word of Power that you need to challenge Miraak. You will be either a worthy opponent or his successor, as the tides of fate decree."
As he disappeared, the tentacles enveloping Storn did so too, and he fell to the ground.
Frea screamed and ran forward. ""Father! What have you done!" and then, turning to me, "Go. My father sacrificed himself so that you could destroy Miraak and lift his master's shadow from the land. Go, then. Kill Miraak. Do not fail."
"This cannot be happening," I thought, but I picked up the book and read it myself.
-------------
Previously: Kothet and company visited White Ridge Barrow, where ... spiders! ... and then tentacles!
-------------
51 - The Third Word
We discussed why Zahra had been unable to open the book. My theory was that it was because she wasn't of this realm, in which case Ranyu would have the same issue. Apparently I was now considered a valid resident of Mundus, perhaps because Mehrunes Dagon had bound me here. Certainly whenever I needed to be restored, this was where it happened.
"Can you use a book twice?" Brelyna asked.
In response, I took the book and opened it. It put me back at the start, so I just re-read it to come back out again. For Brelyna, it took her back to the end-point. And as expected, Ranyu couldn't open it at all.
All that started us wondering what would happen if we tried to read one of Neloth's copies of the books. Presumably nothing, as they wouldn't have the portal spell. And it was time to take him this one, too.
---
Neloth didn't have any additional information about the Black Books, nor any useful opinion as to whether it would help me to look for more. The word walls were a more promising path to defeating Miraak, but we had no way to determine where they were. So far I'd only encountered one above ground, at Saering's Watch, and we'd covered a large portion of the island already. Looking for more would not be easy.
I had two of the three words of Dragon Aspect, which gave me boosts to both offence and defence. I suspected the former would benefit me more than it did Miraak, but I had no clue what the third word would give him. Did I need it before the final confrontation?
I decided to consult Storn again. His wisdom was well-grounded, and not as self-centered as Neloth's.
---
Storn reminded me that I'd only get the third word of Bend Will from Mora himself, and he suspected that the same would be true of Dragon Aspect. I'd most likely have to go to Apochrypha for that, and maybe I'd need all of Bend Will to get to it.
And despite all he'd been trying while we were gone, there was nothing to be done about the Tree Stone. It remained under Miraak's influence, and that would only end with his defeat.
All this had brought him to the conclusion that the only way forward was to do what Hermaeus Mora wanted. He'd have to go to Apocrypha and tell him that the Skaal's secrets weren't the kind he thought they were.
"So it falls to me to be the one to give up the secrets to our ancient enemy. I do not know if I have the strength to face him. The Tree Stone is still corrupted... the land is still out of balance. But with the other five restored... it may be enough. It will have to do. I'm sure Herma-Mora won't be pleased, but perhaps he'll see reason, and let you deal with Miraak."
Freya wasn't as hopeful. She regarded Mora as completely evil. "He doesn't even know what evil means," I told her. "Knowledge is all that matters to him, and the consequences of acquiring it are of no importance at all."
Storn added "Yes. The Skaal also tell of the day when we must finally give up our secrets. When Herma-Mora finally wins. As shaman, it is my duty to guard these secrets, but also to decide when it is necessary to give them up. I believe that time is now. If I am wrong, may my ancestors forgive me. Give me the book. I will read it, and speak to old Herma-Mora myself. I will make sure he lives up to his part of the bargain."
"I hope you know what you're doing," I told him.
"That is my hope as well. I am trusting you will make this sacrifice worthwhile."
Frea still wasn't convinced. "Father, you must not do this. That book is... wrong. Evil. Against everything that you have taught me my whole life."
"I must, Frea. It is the only way to free Solstheim forever from Miraak's shadow. There comes a time when everything must change. Nothing that lives remains the same forever. Do not fear for me, my daughter. This is the destiny that the All-Maker has laid out for me."
"I stand beside you, father, as always."
"I am ready for whatever the foul master of this book has in store for me."
Storn opened the book I had given to him. I had only watched someone else doing this once, when Brelyna had read the book at White Ridge Barrow, but Zahra had told me that the others had seen the same thing when I'd read the books. Tentacles had pulled me through the portal into Apocrypha, leaving only a transparent image behind.
This was different. The tentacles looked the same, but they didn't behave the same way. There were more of them, too. Most wrapped themselves around Storn, pinning him in place, but the last one reared back like a snake, and struck at Storn's head, piercing it.
Hermaeus Mora appeared and spoke to me. "Dragonborn, you have delivered me the gift I requested. In return, I keep my promise, as befits a Prince of Oblivion: I give you the Word of Power that you need to challenge Miraak. You will be either a worthy opponent or his successor, as the tides of fate decree."
As he disappeared, the tentacles enveloping Storn did so too, and he fell to the ground.
Frea screamed and ran forward. ""Father! What have you done!" and then, turning to me, "Go. My father sacrificed himself so that you could destroy Miraak and lift his master's shadow from the land. Go, then. Kill Miraak. Do not fail."
"This cannot be happening," I thought, but I picked up the book and read it myself.
Aww, poor Storn. I think he knew what was coming and felt the price was worth it to (hopefully) enable the destruction of Miraak. I bet Kothet is pissed and wishing he could destroy Mora as well! Grrrr!
My gosh, that's so awful. He got pierced in the head by a tentacle? Kothet himself didn't seem entirely surprised, but even somebody of his ilk is not all-knowing.
Kothet himself didn't seem entirely surprised, but even somebody of his ilk is not all-knowing.
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