Glad that Danica was happy. Gildergreen is a nice quest.

’… it was the destination, not the journey, that mattered.’ - - By Azura! Such sacrilege!

Avonschnitzel! Also a wonderful quest. Like Kothet, I very much like Dwemer dungeons. And how nice for Kothet that returning the lexicon helped out his smithing.

Mintchelcleft for Grimsever up next! With some detours en route of course.

’Apparently mages can keep themselves warm by magic, …’ - - My little mage tells me this is quite true.

Intriguing thoughts by Kothet about his and Huskarla’s mortality and possible interdependence. He’s smitten – in a dremoran kinda way – no doubt about it. I know. . . I'm a hopeless romantic.


Nits:
’Still, the ability to forge ebony was geting {getting} closer.’
’An Argonian woman, down a {at} the docks, …’

Yes, I noticed that too Acadian, the destination > the journey! Then again, if you've done it twice already....

I really like the whole lair-dive in this one, especially when he has to bash that one dwemer with all his might, that's exciting!



Maybe they're after him because he is not mortal.

Acadian: Kothet has been stuck in Tamriel without a female Dremora for two centuries. Of course he's smitten!

Renee: They're after him because that's their business.

-----------------

Previously: Having quests to two Dwarven ruins, the pair selected Avanchnzel first, and now they're moving on to the second.

-----------------

16 - Mzinchaleft

More wolves before we passed the Nightgate Inn, and several other roads we did not travel. As we passed an entrance to a Nordic ruin a short way further up the road, a bandit warned us to stay away. At any time in the past, I'd probably have attacked him for his insolence, but this time I just laughed, and carried on walking up the road. It wasn't worth my time.

Fort Dunstad couldn't be overlooked, as it blocked the road, and almost filled the valley. We headed around it, but the bandits weren't in the mood to be ignored, and came out to greet us. The gap between the wall and the rocks, however, was narrow, and prevented too many of them from attacking us together. With her behind me, sending firebolts over my shoulder, I was as much of a block to them, as the fort was to us.

I was glad that she was using the lesser spell. I wasn't blinded by the explosions that fireballs produce, and she'd be able to keep up that barrage as long as she needed to. It was sufficient to keep the archers and mages suppressed, and I could deal well enough with the others. The battle was long and tedious, though, and I'd used up most of my stamina potions by the time it was done. We back-tracked a little and went through the fort, looking for more.

I didn't find many, but at least they had an alchemy lab, and I could make some. I don't have the skill to make strong ones, but it's improving slowly.

---

We continued into Dawnstar, before turning back to take the other road. I didn't want to get involved with any other quests until I'd completed Mjoll's, but knowing what was here would be useful. I'd heard about the Quicksilver mine from Belethor, when he told me about the vein near the Battle-Born farm. Now I knew where it was. I also knew that there was a smithy here, and an alchemist's. And that reminds me, stamina potions!

The trail off towards Mzinchaleft was marked by a cairn of stones, and a couple of wolves. It was likely that they waited there in ambush, as deer used the trails at least as much as people did. A grateful rabbit fled the other way after we killed them.

The dwarven ruin was down in a hollow, and I suspected that this was just the entrance to something larger, and mostly underground. Avanchnzel had had almost no visible structure near the entrance, and had been almost entirely beneath the hills. Nchuand-Zel was an exception of a sort, as either it was entirely underground, or the whole city of Markarth was its entrance.

There was enough above ground here to make a decent home for bandits, and that was who greeted us as we arrived. They'd left an archer on guard outside, but most of them were camped in the buildings behind him. We met about half-a-dozen of them, one at a time. Fortunately, they didn't have the coordination to attack as a group.

That probably meant that their leader, if they had one, was inside the ruin proper. I opened the door cautiously, not knowing if the fighting outside had alerted anyone within. Apparently not; these thick doors must shut out all the noise.

The bandits inside were just as disorganised, and we dealt with them in ones and twos. No sign of any leadership yet. The last one had a key labelled "Maluril's room" which opened the door he'd been guarding. There was no sign of Maluril, just a diary, left on the table. He'd been their leader, of sorts. A "scholar" looting the Dwemer artifacts from the ruins for sale, who'd hired the bandits to protect him. Maybe we'd find him deeper into the ruin.

I say the last, but in fact he was just the last we had to deal with. There were a few more not much further down, but they were battling the dwarven spheres behind the next gate, and we let it all work out before we opened that.

The spheres had won, but didn't have a lot left. I soon dispatched each of them with a swing of my war-hammer. One of them yielded a large plate I could melt down. I looked around the room for more scrap, but found none.

Mzinchaleft had less traps than Avanchnzel, but just as many automata guarding it, and like we did there, I handled the spheres while she took care of the spiders. There was one unique feature here, an elaborate puzzle gate with multiple levers to pull in sequence, before I reached a valve that turned it all off. That gave us access to an elevator that took us down into Mzinchaleft Depths.

This would be different. Just outside the elevator at the bottom, was a dead body. It was a Falmer, like we'd met in Nchuand-Zel. There was also a broken dwarven spider, so most likely they'd be fighting each other down here. That's if we were lucky. If not, one side would have won, and we'd be the only adversaries.

We had to fight our way past several Falmer to reach the next building, and there were more inside. Mjoll had told us about the centurion that had nearly killed her, so had these blind elves dealt with that? If so, they would be tough to beat.

We emerged into a courtyard, where more of the Falmer tents had been erected. It looked like they were in control in this part, too. There was a barred gateway to the left, with no visible way to open them, and a ramp to the right. Maybe the control to open the gate was up there? We'd have to pass the ones in the tents to find out.

A fireball into each tent had the weakened occupants coming out to meet us. They all wielded bows, and so I rushed the nearest, trying to put him between myself and the other two. If I could just keep them lined up, I could handle them one at a time. The two at the back knew that, and spread apart. A well-timed fireball spread them even further. By the time they recovered their balance enough to raise their bows again, I was on the next one, and the last was getting her full fire.

I found another Falmer up in the tower, guarding the switch. He couldn't fire down where we'd been, directly below him, or we'd have been in trouble. I knocked him over the balcony to join his late fellows.

The gate bars rattled down when I used the switch. If we'd been trying to sneak into the next area, we wouldn't have got far. However, we weren't trying to sneak, and the nearest Falmer had come over to investigate, leaving the other behind. Separately, they were less trouble than they would have been together, not that the boss was easy. He threw frost at us before he drew his sword, and took several good blows from my hammer before he fell.

Beyond him, a ramp led up to a large door, and I could see both Falmer corpses, and broken dwarven automata lying around, as if there had just been a major battle here.

---

Through the door, there was no sign of Falmer, but I could see an active centurion standing in his charging frame at the far end of the hall. Since we'd dealt with the one in Avanchnzel, I believed we could handle another, as long as we used the right tactics. I needed to get in close, below the steam blast he could use, and she needed somewhere to get out of its way.

We had one more thing going for us here. It hadn't seen us yet. That meant we could each get a long-range shot in before he came for us. Then we could retreat back around this corner, and wait until he got closer.

Yes, my plans included retreating. The Kyn do not retreat, ever. Except when we do, and then we don't talk about it after.

Strategic withdrawal. That sounded much better than retreat, and it fit the situation better. Anyway, it was what we needed to do, and so we did it. Both of us, although I'd worried that she'd charge in like she had against the Draugr in Soljund's Sinkhole.

It turned out that we'd also left a dwarven sphere out of the fight by luring the centurion to us. That popped out of its hole in the wall as we got closer. On its own, it wasn't a major threat, but in the middle of fighting the big guy, it would NOT have been welcome.

Mjoll's sword, Grimsever, was just lying on a bench near the centurion's charging frame. That may have been exactly where she dropped it, or it might have been put there by a spider worker clearing up. But it was in one piece, and we'd found it!

I'll be honest, I was almost as excited by the amount of usable scrap metal I'd been able to collect as we went along. I had some malachite, and I intended to give Grimsever a tune-up before I handed it back, but dwarven work was taking me closer to my goal of proper daedric equipment.

Another of my fave Dwemer dungeons! This was fun because I knew exactly where Kothet was all the time and chuckled over some of his observations.

Between you and me, I think the Falmer are cranky all the time because there seems to be no women Falmer.

’The Kyn do not retreat, ever. Except when we do, and then we don't talk about it after.’ - - The words 'advance to the rear' came to mind until Kothet chose to call it a 'strategic withdrawal'.

Aww, Mjoll will certainly appreciate getting her mighty blade back. Why, I hear that just the sight of it can cause bandits to soil their greaves.

Acadian: "Aww, Mjoll will certainly appreciate getting her mighty blade back." - Yes, she will.

And there are women Falmer, sort of. The shamans are supposedly female!

--------------


Previously: Kothet and co. had travelled to Mzinchaleft to retrieve Mjoll's sword (and gather metal).

--------------

17 - Shor's Stone

To describe Mjoll as happy to get Grimsever back would be an understatement. I was hugged and kissed in a way that would have been most enjoyable if we hadn't both been wearing armour. I could hear Aerin and my associate discussing whether our cuirasses would crack like nut-shells under the onslaught.

"If you didn't already have a companion, I'd have to offered to follow you for a while. I clearly have a lot to learn," she told me.

I pointed out that she was a two-handed tank like myself, and what either of us needed more as a follower was a mage. Since she had a magical enchantment on Grimsever, her perfect match would be a healer. Especially if she fought with similar exuberance.

She agreed. "When I was younger, I was fearless, and took too many risks." She told me all about Aerin finding her outside Mzinchaleft. She'd already told me that whole story before we went there, but she clearly liked telling it again, and perhaps she needed to remind him that she remained grateful to him, as well as me.

---

We all went into the Bee and Barb for a drink or two to celebrate. The four of us chatted for hours, and it wasn't until we left that I realised my companion had managed to do that without ever actually speaking to me.

---

Riften didn't have a smelter in town, so we headed out to the nearest mine, in Shor's Stone. a village not far to the north, on the road to Windhelm. So of course, there was a problem they'd like sorted out, first. And it had to involve spiders, didn't it?

"I'll go do this. You wait here," I told her. She not only doesn't talk to me, sometimes she doesn't listen, either, and despite her spider issues, she followed me into the mine.

I don't think I managed to hit any of the spiders before a fireball blew them out of reach. It's probably cathartic for her to do that, so I don't mind. And we did have the whole mine free of spiders in just a couple of minutes. I mined some iron while I was there, so I'd have enough to go with the dwarven metal. After reporting back that the spiders were gone, I set myself to making more bows.

If I hadn't been able to sell half of them there in Shor's Stone, I wouldn't have been able to carry them all back to Riften. Selling the remainder to Balimund meant that I had enough cash to have him train me, as far as he was able. "You should be able to work with ebony soon," he told me, and I knew just where I needed to go.

---

We passed another Dwemer ruin on the way, at Mzulft, but it was locked beyond my picking abilities. However, I did manage to get into a storeroom outside that had a fair amount of metal, and a couple of chests with other useful items.

At Narzulbur, or rather, Gloombound mine, I mined ebony and iron, and a little Orichalcum, too. Making a couple of Orcish bows was all I needed to reach my next skill level, and I could finally make ebony items. I put a bit of extra value into my war-hammer before I sold it to Dushnamub, and set into making an ebony one to replace it. The Orc smith was impressed. He didn't make much of the ebony himself, as the tribe preferred tradional Orcish, but he knew it was hard to work, and needed a lot of skill.

"I don't have a lot of gold to buy what you're making," he warned me. "Don't make more than you can carry."

He had a good point. While I wanted to make as much ebony weapons and armour as I could, to raise my smithing skill, maybe I shouldn't do it here. I'd given Balimund, back in Riften, most of my gold to pay for lessons. He'd be able to afford to buy it, so I should use the forge there instead.

Balimund could teach me just a little more, now that I had the materials, but Daedric was beyond his abilities. He could afford to buy the things I made, however. I made mostly bows, as I was holding off from making ebony armour. Although it would be better than what I was wearing, it wouldn't have the look I wanted. My heavy armour skill was high enough that most of my defence was independent of material, anyway. And if I didn't make a complete set of armour, the mis-match reduced the benefits, too.

The problem I was going to have in making Daedric was that it required Deadra hearts. You can imagine my reluctance to seek out those.

Wonderful job of showing us the motormouth enthusiastic Mjoll we all know and love. The mystery continues regarding Kothet's fireballing housecarl. She will follow him and protect him even against his orders but will not speak to him. . . but will speak to others. How curious. His smithing is certainly coming along. Dremora hearts. I should think a Dremora would have no qualms harvesting them. It would seem that they prize dominance and power more than loyalty to their own kind. Less Dremora = less competition in the realms?

Gotta love Motormouth Mjoll. Just when you think she can't possibly tell you again how much she 'misses adventuring like dis."

Seeking daedra hearts probably won't be fun.

Acadian: Gathered hearts mean karmic demotion for the providers. He'd prefer opponents that don't deserve that.

Renee: He won't have to seek Deadra hearts, as it turns out.

-------------

Peviously: Kothet returned Grimsever, his housecarl cleared Redbelly Mine, and he's advanced his smithing to the brink of Deadric.

-------------

18 - Dawnstar

I'm not sure if fate, or Mehrunes Dagon himself, solved that problem for me. Probably the former, as he undoubtedly wouldn't have any influence with Vaermina, who also played a part.

A courier handed me a flyer advertising a new museum opening up in Dawnstar, and I had no significant quests to complete that would stop me going there. I still had half the fire salts to find for Balimund, but they could be anywhere. I'd picked up almost all I had in the one conjurer den, the one where I almost lost my housecarl. Was that a reason not to look for more?

Anyway, we did head for Dawnstar, and the museum turned out to be one of relics of the Mythic Dawn. Silus Versuius was apparently the descendent of a member of that faction. His knowlege of the history was a bit lacking, and coloured by his nostalgia, but he had managed to assemble a decent amount of items to tell his story.

I was amused to hear it all from the perspective of a mortal. Mankar Camoran had been Dagon's puppet, but Silus seemed to believe he'd instigated the entire plot. He revered the "Commentaries" more than the original Mysterium Xarxes, too. I was surprised to find that he had a piece of that. I'd have expected that Lord Dagon would have taken it all back, but perhaps it was serving a new purpose here.

Silus was eager to recruit my help in adding to his collection. He knew the locations of the remnants of Mehrunes' Razor, an artifact of Lord Dagon that had last been seen at the end of the third Era. It had been broken up, and the parts scattered around Skyrim, but Silus had tracked them down.

Of course, they were guarded, which is why he needed help. He gave me a book about the keepers of the parts, and asked me to return when I had anything.

---

I also discovered that Dawnstar had another problem. Everyone was getting persistent nightmares, and only one person, a priest of Mara, had any idea what to do. He was convinced that the source of the problem was a temple on the hill overlooking the town. Vaermina was the instigator of the nightmares, and it was her temple. He seemed to know a lot about the place that he wasn't telling me, but I trusted him enough to agree to help. He was at least trying to assist the people of Dawnstar, and I couldn't see any treacherous angle in what he proposed.

I was agreeing for the two of us, of course, but a glance in her direction had been met with a nod. That was about all I ever got, so I took it as enthusiasm.

---

When we reached the temple, it was guarded by sabre-cats. The snowy variety that are stronger than the tundra ones, and harder to see against the snow. Fortunately, the three of us had the right combination of offence to handle that issue. Erandur, the priest, told me that he'd had to fight spiders the last time he came here. I'm sure someone I know would prefer sabre-cats.

"Your companion will have to remain outside, I'm afraid," Erandur told me. "I have placed warding spells to protect myself, and my shrine to Mara, that would harm her."

"Won't they harm me, too?" I asked.

"Perhaps a little, but I can prevent that. I don't have enough magical skill for both of you, however."

We entered the first chamber, and I could see the shrine he'd mentioned. There was also a large statue, or wall-relief, of Vaermina. What I couldn't see was any other exit from the room. How would we enter the rest of the temple from here?

"Give me just a moment, and I'll have this open," Erandur said, playing a spell over the statue. It looked like a regular flames spell, but I'm sure it wasn't. Whatever it was, the statue faded and revealed a doorway. We stepped through the now insubstantial statue and entered the temple proper.

We walked around the curved corridor until we reached a point where we could look down into the central shaft of the tower. "There is the source of the nightmares," Erandur told me. "Behold the Skull of Corruption. We must get down there to the inner sanctum, and destroy it."

Naturally, it was easier said than done. Not only did we find two Orcs recovering from the effects of what Eraundur called "the Miasma", a gas the priests had used to put everyone to sleep, but the way was blocked by a magical barrier we had no way to remove.

Erandur knew another route. He had a key to the library. When I asked him about it, he admitted having been one of the Priests of Vaermina himself. He'd switched his allegiance to Mara after fleeing the Orc attack on the temple.

"Be careful once we enter here. There are undoubtedly more of the Orcs awakening inside, and probably the priests as well. Neither will be making us welcome."

We did have to fight both, but at least they weren't cooperating against us. We could let them fight each other for a while before finishing off the survivors. Once we had the library to ourselves, Erandur asked me to try and find a volume called "The Dreamstride". It would have the likeness of the Vaermina statue on the cover. Whether this was a true representation of the Daedric Prince wasn't known, of course, but I'd know the book when I saw it.

It was back up a level, and hidden in a corner, but I found it at last. Erandur read through it, evidently looking for a particular part. "Mara be praised, there is a way past the barrier. It involves a liquid known as Vaermina's Torpor."

"A potion, I presume."

"Yes, and there's a good chance we''l find a sample in the alchemy laboratory just up ahead. It will be in a tall red bottle, and should be clearly labelled."

The laboratory turned out to be full of recovering Orcs and Priests, and we had more fighting to do, before we could start our hunt for the Torpor. Erandur looked upstairs, where the lab benches were, while I searched the lower level, among the ingredient shelves. I found several more fire salts for Balimund, and to my horror, two Daedra hearts. How they'd been obtained, I didn't want to know, but if I'd had any sympathy for the priests before, it had just disappeared.

The bottle I needed was on the bottom shelf of the last rack, next to some ice wraith teeth, and more fire salts.

Erandur now wanted me to drink it. "As a sworn priest of Mara, it will no longer work for me," he claimed.

I wanted to know what would happen if I did so. He told me I'd dream, and in that dream I'd travel to the other side of the barrier. He couldn't tell me much more, but asked me again to trust him.

I drank the potion, and found myself looking through the blurred vision of someone else. A priest of Vaermina, it appeared, as I was in conversation with two other priests, deciding to release the miasma, as a last resort to stop the Orcs. I was addressed as "Brother Casimir" and told that it was my job to go and release it.

I set off through the battle. None of the fighting orcs and priests paid me any attention, as they were too busy, and I reached the chain, and pulled it. The blur receded, and I found myself staring at a soul gem that appeared to be sustaining the barrier. I took it from its holder, and the barrier disappeared.

Erandur was waiting on the other side. He told me that I'd just disappeared when I drank the Torpor, and he'd come here hoping that I'd found a way to disable the barrier, and he could come and assist.

We battled our way through a lot more of the orcs and priests on our way to the inner sanctum where the Skull stood. Erandur unlocked the door, and we went inside, to find two priests waiting for us. They were the same two I'd seen in my dream, vision, whatever it was when I drank the Torpor. And they addressed Erandur as "Casimir".

He acknowledged that name, but told them he was Erandur now. Veren and Thorek denounced him as a cowardly traitor, and he admitted fear at the time that he'd fled during the Orcs' invasion. But he had Mara's guidance now, and he was here to finish things.

Veren and Thorek attacked, with maces, and with magic. Each was the equal of Erandur, but my different skills turned the tide in our favour, and soon Erandur was able to start the ritual to deal with the Skull of Corruption.

Vaermina tried to intervene, speaking to me, and trying to persuade me to kill Erandur, and take the Skull for myself. While it was a Daedric artifact, and therefore obviously valuable, I didn't see it having any direct usefulness to me, so I did nothing. I had a suspicion that the nightmares would have continued if I'd taken the staff, and the people of Dawnstar might be grateful if they ended.

I'd found enough in the chests in the temple to reward me for the work I'd done, and the fire salts and Daedra hearts were more important than the rest. The former would be going to Balimund, and the latter meant that I didn't have to gather them myself, to make my armour.

I’ve never done the Mehrune’s Razor/Museum quest so I’m interested in hearing about it from Kothet.

I’ve done the Vaermina/Mara quest multiple times though and thoroughly enjoy it.

Heh, When Erandur said no followers in the temple, I wondered if Kothet was going to take his quiet housecarl and walk away. I was pleased to see him take the quest and, ultimately, his choice at the end. In his own way, Kothet is kind of a good guy. You know, for a Dremora.

Acadian: Not much detail on the sub-quests, I'm afraid, as they really don't say much about Kothet. He just does that kind of mindless slaughter without really paying much attention.

--------------

Previously: Kothet found two Daedra hearts in the temple of Varemina, while helping to stop the nightmares in Dawnstar. He's started a second quest there.

-------------

19 - Dagon's Shrine

Finding the pieces of Mehrunes' Razor was a tedious trip across most of the province, but the bandits who held the blade shards, and the Hagraven with her Forsworn minions who held the pommel stone, were at least satisfying enemies to deal with. I already had enough issues with both factions to take pleasure in recovering those parts. The hilt, however, was held by Jorgen, the mill-owner in Morthal, and I had no quarrel with him. I hoped he could be persuaded to hand over the last item without any conflict.

Since Silus had paid me for the first two, I was able to simply buy it from him, and for less than Silus was paying me.

I took the final piece back to the museum. I wanted to ask Silus why he wanted the Razor's parts in his collection, as they had nothing to do with the Daedric invasion of Tamriel in which the Mythic Dawn had taken part. Yes, the two had Mehrunes Dagon in common, but this was supposed to be the museum of the Mythic Dawn, not of Dagon.

He told me that he intended to take the pieces to Dagon's shrine and ask the Deadric Prince to restore the artifact. He already had the scabbard, and with all four parts, he was sure that Dagon would listen to his plea.

I didn't think that was a good idea. And I did know Mehrunes Dagon better than any mortal could. He wasn't to be dissuaded, though, and set off at a run for the hills. We followed behind him, hoping to avert what I suspected would be a nasty situation.

---

We found him at the shrine, with the pieces laid on the altar, trying to talk to the Daedric Prince, who wasn't listening. He implored me to try. "Just put your hands on the altar. I'm sure he'll listen to you."

I did so, and wasn't surprised to hear Dagon's voice. "You are worthy to listen to. You reclaimed the pieces of my Razor, unlike this mortal."

"He helped me, and he did find the scabbard himself," I replied.

"Nevertheless," Dagon replied. "I do not declare a winner while there is a pawn on the board. Kill Silus, and I will restore the Razor for you."

"I don't think I want it restored," I told him, "and I'm surprised that you're considering it. Surely the whole point of destroying it was that something better could take its place."

That seemed to annoy the Daedric Prince. Although I sensed that I was right about the Razor, it was my implicit refusal to kill Silus that irked him.

"I have spoken. Kill Silus, or I will crush you!"

I let the frightened Imperial grab the pieces and make a run for it, back to Dawnstar. I had a feeling there was more to this than just the matter of Silus.

Two summoned Dremora appeared from nowhere, with weapons already drawn. However, they were far enough from me and my companion that we were able to prepare ourselves for battle. And neither was higher than Caitiff, if my estimate of their skill was accurate. A Valkynaz, or rather ex-Valkynaz, like myself, should be able to handle them alone. I wasn't alone, and they were resistant to her spells, so I did have to defend for two, but not for long.

I was astounded to see their bodies remain on the snow when they fell. Surely they should have immediately returned to the Deadlands, as any summoned daedra would. I couldn't take their armour, but their hearts were available. Had I just passed one of Dagon's tests?

Each of them also had a key to the shrine, so it was likely that they had just been moved outside, rather than coming from Dagon's realm. Perhaps these were like me, stuck in Tamriel after the doors to Oblivion were closed by Martin Septim's sacrifice.

I used one of the keys, and we found two more of their number inside, one of them a mage. This time, however, we had the advantage of surprise, and they were soon lying dead on the icy floor. Two more Daedra hearts, enough to make my armour, and a weapon.

I collected several ingots of gold, and ebony, as well as various enchanted pieces of armour and jewellery. I turned to show one of those to my companion, but she wasn't there behind me, as she usually was. Had Dagon recalled her while I was busy fighting his minions?

I looked outside the shrine, but she wasn't there either. Then I walked all the way back to Dawnstar, in case she'd decided that Silus needed escorting back. She was an intelligent woman, and would have seen the possibility of Dagon sending another Caitiff after him. She wasn't there, and Silus was safely back in his museum.

---

I took the ebony and Daedra hearts back to the Tower, and put them in a chest by the anvil. Tomorrow, I'd see if my smithing was up to making Daedric equipment, but first I needed to rest. She still hadn't re-appeared, and I was worried, so I wasn't sure if I could actually sleep.

I also wasn't sure if I should re-cast the summoning spell. If she was still in Tamriel, what would happen? I knew that being "banished" was quite unpleasant, and I didn't want to put her through that unnecessarily. On the other hand, I didn't want to go to bed without her. Even if nothing ever happened, she belonged there beside me, and it wouldn't feel right. I cast the spell.

I'd conjectured that when I finally made my Daedric armour, she'd be naked. I'd only gathered the materials to do that, and there she was. She didn't seem to be in any way surprised by her new outfit, or lack of one, and was smiling at me in a way she'd never done before.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she asked.

After all that time, it was my turn to say to say nothing. I think she understood.

---

We woke about half-way through the following day, having thoroughly exhausted each other the night before. "Are we going to catch up on all the gossip, or are you in the mood for more?" she asked me, with a huge grin on her face.

"Both," I assured her, "but we have all the time we need. Let's start with you telling me what happened back at Dagon's shrine. Where did you go?"

"Dagon brought me back to the Deadlands, and asked me whether I thought you'd passed his test. Since I wasn't really sure what he was testing you for, it took a while to figure it all out. He was pleased that you'd found the courage to defy him, and your reasoning about the Razor was in line with his own. That was a failed experiment, and he should forge some new weapon to take its place."

"I presume it's over now, since you can talk to me?" I asked.

"Yes, that's true. I wasn't allowed to give you any clues about it, not that I really ever knew what I wasn't supposed to be telling you."

"Perhaps you weren't supposed to know either. It could have been both of us on trial."

"I hadn't thought of it that way. I was just told not to talk to you, so I didn't. And when Dagon called me back, he told me that was over, and I could."

"OK, so now explain why you appeared totally naked when I summoned you. I'd noticed that your outfits seemed to be getting smaller as my smithing skill increased, and I'd wondered where that would end. Was there any connection?"

"No, silly! I was just getting more comfortable being with you, and if I couldn't talk, it was one way I could provide some encouragement. But the naked part was just because you summoned me here in the bedroom. That's how I knew why you wanted me. That you wanted me, not just someone to help even the odds in a fight."

"I wanted you before. I've wanted you for a long time. What changed?"

"When I wasn't allowed to talk to you, I didn't trust myself not to say anything when ... you know, my mind was on other things. And I'd be telling you what I liked, or didn't, even if I wasn't saying anything. I wasn't sure if that counted as communicating."

"Oh it definitely does. And you seemed to know what I liked, without me telling you, so it works both ways."

"I got some of that from talking to Prizna," she told me. "Dagon sent me to find out all she could tell me about you, before you got that letter. He's quite pleased with her, you know. She broke all the rules by rebelling against you, and Dagon thinks they needed breaking, because the Dremora women are much more confident now."

"Yes, he does like to see things get broken." I rubbed the back of my head, remembering where she'd hit me with that mace. "But it seems that it's always someone else's job to put things back together."

"I didn't remake you. You did that yourself. I was just the monitor, to report on your progress."

"So what went into your report?" I asked.

"Things like your decision at the Eldergleam. You thought that one out, and made the decision you thought was right, not just doing what Danica had asked, but what she really needed. And all the other choices. You don't just react these days, you think."

’I didn't think that was a good idea.’ - - Eeep! Me either!
Sure enough, Silus chose poorly.

I was worried when Silentia the Housecarl disappeared.

Woot! She’s back, in naked, speaking glory. And she knows how to use both. So the long mystery of Kothet's housecarl has been solved and, you know what? They do make a great couple.

Oh. . . and now he can ask her name. . . .

That part did seem sort of like a test, a trick from Mehrunes Dagon. Kinda neat how Kothet knows some of these tricks, because of his background.

Acadian: We solved the mystery of the "no talking to Kothet" part, anyway. There's more to work out.

Renee: If he doesn't know Dagon better than mortals do by now ...

-------------

Previously - The housecarl speaks, Kothet is speechless. Fade to black.

-------------

20 - High Hrothgar

"Wait a moment," I said. "You mentioned talking to someone called 'Prizna', and it sounded like you were talking about a woman who used to belong to me. Does she have her own name now? I've got used to the mortals naming their women, but she was Dremora."

"Yes, didn't you know? Oh, no, I suppose you haven't been back to the Deadlands since all of that happened, have you? Of course it was a mortal that gave it to her, and she needed it because she was going to be living in Tamriel, where all the women have names."

"You'll be living in Tamriel, too, if I'm still stuck here. Did Dagon say if my exile is over?"

She shook her head. "No, he didn't tell me anything about that. I think he wants you to work that out for yourself. Maybe you have the choice of staying here or going back."

"And of course, I don't know Dagon's terms for my return, so I have no way of knowing if I want to do so. If it meant losing you, I wouldn't want it." I thought for a while. "And if I'm staying here, you'll need a name, won't you? Do you already have one?"

"No, and Dagon didn't say anything about one. Does that mean he doesn't expect me to stay here?"

"No, just that he wasn't telling you something that we have to work out for ourselves. I think you need a name, so we should choose one."

"I'm glad you said we should do it together. You've been here among the Nords long enough that you'd give me one of theirs. You know the kind I mean. Like Uthgerd the Unbroken, except that I'd probably end up as Jane the Jiggly, or something rude like that."

"Well, if I called you something as common as Jane, they'd have to explain which Jane they meant, and they'd add on whatever's memorable about you. But you need a proper Dremora name, which will avoid that problem."

"But there aren't any Dremora names for women," she reasonably pointed out.

"There are words in the ancient tongues that might be suitable," I countered. "What about 'Zahra', which means flower, or beautiful like a flower? Then you've got a name, and it already describes you."

She seemed to like that one, and I perhaps shouldn't have spoiled the mood by musing further. "Soft pink petals, overflowing with nectar ... why are you hitting me like that?"

---

This was the last thing I'd been waiting for: now I had my Daedric Armour, and she had a name, I could go and introduce us to the Greybeards. Of course, she wanted to know what she should wear. She didn't have any Daedric Armour, and we didn't have the materials to make her any.

"You're a mage, so wear mage clothes. Do you have something a bit more formal than your usual outfit?"

"You think that might be a bit too much for a bunch of old men?"

"Too little, maybe?"

She cast a small spell, and a black silk robe, trimmed in red, appeared around her. It covered her completely, but clung close to her curves.

"Is that warm enough for the top of a snow-covered mountain?"

"Of course. It's enchanted with frost resistance. They'll see that it's thin, and be able to work that out for themselves."

---

"And so, a Dragonborn appears at this moment in the turning of the age. I am Master Arngeir; I speak for the Greybeards."

"You call me Dragonborn, but how can a Kynaz, who was never born, be one?"

"Because that word is but a poor translation of 'Dovahkiin'. The Nords aquire their kinship through birth, which is why they use that term. Kin, Kyn, kiin - it is all the same word. You have a familial connection to the dragons, the same as you do to other Dremora."

"But what does that mean?"

"One aspect is that you learn the dragon language more easily than others. You have already learned 'Fus' and probably more. Let us taste of your voice."

I assumed that the old man knew what he was doing. I shouted "Fus" in his direction, and he staggered backward.

"It is true, then. You do have the power of the Voice. But it needs to be trained, if you would reach your full potential, and fulfill your destiny."

"What is my destiny?" I asked.

"That is for you to discover. We can show you the way, but not the destination. Master Einhart will teach you the next word of Unrelenting Force."

Another Greybeard stepped forward and spoke a single word "Ro". It didn't knock anyone around, perhaps because it was spoken alone, without the preceding "Fus". It did, however, cause a glowing word to appear on the floor, so I could read, as well as hear it.

Arngeir explained that it took them years of meditation to fully understand a word of power, but the Dovahkiin could learn one in moments, absorbing that knowledge from a dying dragon, as I had with Murmulnir.

I didn't have to kill any dragons to learn "Ro", as Einhart let me tap into his own knowledge of the word. It was much the same experience, and the understanding was just as complete.

They tested me further, creating phantom targets on which to use the greater two-word shout. When Arngeir deemed my progress enough, we went outside for the next stage. He wanted to see if I could learn a completely new shout.

Master Borri taught me the first word of Whirlwind Sprint, "Wuld", in much the same way as Einhart taught me "Ro". Then I had to demonstrate that shout, too. Finally, Arngeir sent me to collect the Horn of Jurgen WIndcaller from his tomb. I suspected that this would require me to use these shouts, in a practical trial of my ability.

---

"So, Zahra, what did you think of the Greybeards," I asked her.

"I prefer them to spiders, but they're still a bit creepy," she responded. "They way they look at you, but don't say anything, apart from that Arngeir."

"That reminds me of someone else," I pointed out. "And it's because their voices are too powerful, now. They don't want to blow us off the mountain."

"Where do we have to go to get this horn? I didn't recognise the name of the place."

"It's just a bit north of Morthal, and the vampires' lair we cleared out."

"The place where the guard said there were spiders out in the swamp?"

"Yes, but they wouldn't be any bigger then the ones you killed at Shor's Stone. It's too cold up there for the larger ones. What is your problem with spiders, anyway? You aren't afraid of anything else, even when you should be."

"It goes back a long way. I've always found the spider daedra a bit disgusting. When somebody told me about them sucking the insides out of their victims, and then putting on the skin if it was prettier than the one they had, it freaked me out completely. Especially as he implied I'd be a prime target for them."

"Well he was right about you being prettier than any of the spider daedra, but they don't actually feed like that. Or change their skin," I explained. "Real spiders, the ones here on Nirn, do feed that way, because they don't have any alternative. They don't have any way to bite, or chew. All they can do is stab with their fangs."

"Spider daedra just look like them, but they're not the same thing at all. They're not women, either," I continued. "And being ... cautious ... of spider daedra is just sensible. They're a mean and unpredictable lot at the best of times."

"You're making Nirn spiders sound worse than the daedra ones," she pointed out.

"They're less intelligent, can't do magic, and they don't like fire. What have you got to be afraid of?"

"Well, put like that, nothing but my own imagination. And I can get past it if I make myself angry enough. I just don't like them, and never will."

Jane the Jiggly! Oops, I mean Zahra.

Good description of how Kothet can be ‘dragonborn’ and it fits well.

Fun discussion also into Zahra’s fear of spiders and how she came by it.

Aacadian: Not fear, disgust.

Renee:

-------------

Previously Kothet and Jane the Jiggly Zahra visited High Hrothgar and were sent to Ustengrav.

--------------

21 - Ustengrav

We had to cross the hills to get to Morthal, and at the top of one of them, we found a dragon, roosting on another of those word walls with the dragon writing. He shouted frost at us, but I fired arrows back, and Zahra threw fireballs, until we brought him down. Then my war-hammer proved mightier than his jaws.

The wall taught me "Zun", which means weapon, so now I had two words that I could unlock with the dragon's knowledge. Neither really called me to turn them into a shout right away. "Yol" would not give me any more fire damage than Zahra could produce, and one of the Kyn would not be happy taking advantage of his opponent by disarming him with a shout. Besides, the dragons are the strongest foes, and they carry no weapons.

I knew that I could wait, and use this later. There might be another word wall where we were heading, and I'd have yet another option.

---

We met the road between Morthal and Dawnstar, and it looked like we could follow it for a while before we need to cut off towards Ustengrav. We'd met frostbite spiders on this road before, but it seemed to me likely that we'd see more going through the swamps.

We passed the point where we'd previously turned off to Labyrinthian, and the pass, and instead found the small mining community of Stonehills. I had no need to stop, so we continued northward up the road. Not much further, we came across a couple of conjurers being ambushed by bandits. They were dead before we reached them, and the bandits turned on us. Stupid mortals!

We didn't find much worth taking on the bandits, and the conjurers didn't have anything better. A few ingredients, and some potions was about all. I'd expected more, as they had a horse (dead now) and a wagon, and could have been carrying quite a load.

This was about where we'd need to turn off west towards Ustengrav. I looked for a trail, but didn't find much, so I was quite surprised to find us approaching a Stormcloak camp. The guard eyed me suspiciously, but said nothing as we passed.

At the foot of the rise, I could see the ring of a nordic barrow. There was a campfire nearby, and a crude shelter, suggesting a bandit camp. Why they didn't just use the ruin itself was puzzling, but perhaps they didn't have the place to themselves. There might well be draugr inside.

The bandits, as ever, were hostile, but not for long. I noticed that Zahra was sporting a cloak of flames as she ran down the hill to engage them. That should keep the spiders away!

---

Inside, steps led down to a larger chamber under the hill, where some more of the bandits had fallen into the clutches of necromancers, who had raised them as thralls. One of the necromancers was complaining about their sluggishness as we approached. Zahra gave them more to complain about with a fireball in their midst, and I charged in with my warhammer.

We picked up a few useful potions and things, and then looked around for a way to go farther into the tomb. A side passage echoed with the sounds of fighting, so we followed it to find out what was going on.

The draugr I'd been expecting were doing battle with more of the necromancers. We let them thin each others' ranks before joining the side that was winning. Naturally the draugr were ungrateful, and we had to finish them as well.

They weren't the last of them, of course, but we didn't encounter another group of that size again. Ones and twos weren't a problem to us. Eventually we emerged into a large grotto, on a ledge overlooking the main chamber. The passage we had to follow had a fire trap, but that doesn't mean much to Dremora.

The skeletons we encountered next were a nuisance, as there were quite a few of them, all armed with bows, and they all seemed to notice us at once. After running around and eliminating them, we headed down the ramp to a word wall at the bottom, by a small pool.

The word I learned this time was "Feim", part of "Become Ethereal". I thought about this one for a while, and decided to unlock it with my dragon knowledge. I could use this to pass through traps and turn them off for Zahra. She didn't seem to be able to dodge them as well as I do, perhaps because she's a mage, rather than a fighter.

This area appeared to be a dead end, with no way to progress, so we walked back up to the middle level to look around more. There was a bridge over to another area we hadn't explored, so we crossed it, only to come under fire from another skeleton archer. His bones flew apart as one of Zahra's fireballs found its mark.

There were three small pillars rising from the floor. As I approached one, it started to glow and a gate at the end opened. I walked on to the next one, and it, too, started glowing. A second gate, behind the first, opened up. But when I continued to the third, the first gate closed again, just as the third one opened.

I backed up until the first gate opened again, but by then the third one had dropped again. It appeared that I couldn't open all three gates at once, because I couldn't stand near all three pillars. Zahra's presence didn't affect them. This was my trial, so it was all tuned to me. At least that's what I imagined. She's as real as I am, so there can't be any other explanation for it.

Walking up and down, I noticed a slight delay between the pillars' glow ceasing, and the gate closing. I might be able to run past all the pillars, and get through the gates, if I used that Whirlwind Sprint shout the Greybeards had taught me.

Of course I ran into the gates at full speed a couple of times before I got the timing right. Zahra was trying so hard not to laugh, as she sauntered through after me. Of course the gates stayed open for her after I'd done all the work.

Then we came to a large area of fire traps, the kind that blast flames up from the floor. While we resist fire well, there were just too many of these to ignore. But I noticed that they were not all a uniform shade. A quick experiment showed that the darker ones produced flames, but the paler ones didn't. I told Zahra what I'd discovered and instructed her to follow in my footsteps. Without pushing, please!

There had to be spiders, didn't there? Fortunately, she just stopped and turned on her fire cloak, instead of trying to run back. Then she hurled fireballs, even after they were dead. She's getting more composed when it's spiders, but we still have a way to go.

Naturally, she let me clear the webs off the door ahead before she was prepared to pass through it. It led into a large flooded chamber, with a path up the middle. As we entered, dragon head statues rose out of the water, with a lot of noisy grinding of stone on stone. Nothing else, though. No draugr popping out of coffins, or any of the usual stuff.

At the top of the coffin at the end of the path was a stone hand, holding up a note, rather than the horn I was expecting to find. It was addressed to me, or at least "Dragonborn", and told me to rent the attic room at the inn in Riverwood. I presumed whoever left the note had the horn now, so I had little choice but to do as it requested.

Bandits vs Necrodudes vs Druglords – Ustengrav’s an interesting place.

I like Kothet’s careful management of where he focuses his limited dragon resources.

That door/speed puzzle is hard!

’Then she hurled fireballs, even after they were dead.’ - - Buffy does the same thing when panicked.

Darn! All that work and the horn’s been stolen! I hope Kothet has some words (maybe even a warhammer) for whoever took it.


Nit: ’But I noticed that they were not all a usniform shade.’

You know, the first time I did this, and again a few times after that, I kept expecting a big, knockdown drag-out fight for that stupid horn, and was surprised that those dragon heads were all that was there ...

I've been in England (and cut off from the internet) for a couple of weeks, so this one's a bit overdue.

Acadian: I'm not sure why they added the necromancers to that mix. It doesn't change the story at all, and just having bandits at the entrance, and draugr further in, would have worked as well. Perhaps there was cut content that made the necros relevant?

The way the gates and pillars work when you have a follower never made any sense to me, until I had the idea that it's all tuned to the dragonborn. I've done it once with two words of Whirlwind Sprint, and it's much easier then. I suspect that was the intention when it was designed.

h.e.r: That was exactly the expectations I think they they intended. However, I still want to know how Delphine barred the doors behind her on the way out.

------------

Previously: Kothet and co. went to Ustengrav for the Hprn of Jurgen Windcaller and got just a note.

-----------

22 - Blades

"So you're the one they're calling Dragonborn," the innkeeper said, as she gave me Jurgen Windcaller's horn. "Follow me down to the basement, so we can talk privately."

Once we got down there, through a secret door in the back of a wardrobe, she started to question me. "Is it true? Are you really Dragonborn? Can you kill a dragon permanently by devouring its soul?"

"Yes, I'm Dragonborn, and when I defeat a dragon, I do absorb power from it. But that's not its soul, any more than the so-called soul trap spell gathers souls from slain enemies." That was a very mortal notion. Since they don't get restored, they have this strange idea about what happens at death.

Magicka and knowledge are almost the same thing, and they get passed between generations of mortals while they're still living. You can't destroy knowledge, only forget it, and someone can always give it back to you. If your magicka and knowledge are powerful enough, like Daedric Princes, you can restore a lesser creature to life, and that's what happens for the lesser Daedra.

They don't always do it directly. The Saints and Seducers of Sheogorath have the Wellsprings (creations of the Daedric Prince of course) that do so on his behalf, and Dagon has a similar arrangement involving fire, rather than water.

But they can't create life, only restore it. The Aedra chose a dfferent path for this world, of continous creation, but permanent death. Of new growth, rather than rebuilding. The mortals are just as jealous of our lives after death, as we are of their ability to have children, but the paths are equal, if different.

I failed to convince this Delphine, even of my really being the Dragonborn. She wanted to see me defeat a dragon, and what happened after, with her own eyes. And she knew where that was likely to be possible. She told me that the dragons were being raised from their burial mounds, as she'd found them empty, and she'd seen a pattern in it that suggested the next would happen at Kynesgrove, near Windhelm.

Delphine told me that she was the last of the Blades, of whom I'd heard. They had been the bodyguards of the Emperor of Cyrodiil, back in the previous era, but had been almost wiped out by the Thalmor at the start of the Great War. She claimed that their true purpose was as dragon-slayers, but that had been put on hold when the dragons disappeared from Tamriel. Now they were back, it was time for the Blades to rise, too.

---

I agreed to meet her at Kynesgrove. Although Delphine struck me as a fanatic with a warped notion of reality, she was intimately involved with the dragon situation, and therefore probably a key to my destiny, as the Greybeards put it. I had to find the path on my own, as they'd pointed out, and she might provide me some clues.

First, however, I needed to complete my task by returning the horn to High Hrothgar. Hopefully the path up the mountain was still free of wolves, bears and trolls.

---

I mentioned Delphine and the Blades to Arngeir, and he scowled. "The Blades have always tried to turn the Dragonborn from his true path. Do not listen to her." I assured him of my skepticism, and he seemed at least partially reassured.

The Greybeards taught me the final word of Unrelenting Force, "Dah". I was then formally recognised as the Dragonborn, in a ceremony that involved a lot of shouting, mostly at me. I found I could understand what they were saying, even though it was in the dragon tongue, perhaps because I'd become a bit more dragon myself.

---

Then it was time to meet Delphine at Kynesgrove. As Zahra and I arrived in the small village, the innkeeper ran out to warn us of a dragon nearby, circling over the old mound at the top of the hill.

We went up there, and found Delphine crouched behind a rock, waiting for us. A large black dragon, one I knew, was circling overhead, as if he was waiting for us, too. He shouted at the dragon mound, which broke apart, and a skeletal dragon emerged.

As we stared in disbelief, the skeletal dragon formed new flesh and replied to the other dragon, in their language, of course. I didn't understand much, but I caught the names Alduin, and Sahloknir, which were the large black dragon, and the one he'd just raised.

Alduin addressed me directly, and accused me of arrogance, for taking the name "Dovahkiin". I hadn't taken it, it was what Murmulnir had called me, as it if was already mine.

I was not at all surprised when Alduin instructed Sahloknir to kill us, and flew off. The lesser dragon's latest life was a short one, as Zahra and I, and I have to admit Delphine too, soon put it down. As expected, The dragon taught me his knowledge as he passed, with the usual swirl of light I'd seen before. I'm sure Delphine could see it, too.

"I guess I owe you a few answers," she said.

---

Delphine didn't actually have many to give. She didn't know as much about the dragons as I'd hoped, and her conjectures seemed to be just more paranoia. She was convinced the Thalmor must have something to do with their re-appearance, as who else would benefit from it? I was tempted to say "the Blades", as they'd just regained their lost purpose, but I didn't.

I was now particularly curious about the big black dragon, Alduin. If the dragons were daedra like myself, then his ability to restore them must mean he was an avatar of a Daedric Prince, or at least the agent of one. But which? A further confusion arose from the fact that both Peryite and Akatosh are associated here with a dragon's form. One Daedric, one Aedric, and neither seemed to fit with this Alduin.

Delphine was convinced that the Thalmor knew more about the dragons, and although she didn't present a very convincing case, it was all I had to go on. I agreed to meet her later, in Riverwood. She was going to try to find a way to get me into the Thalmor Embassy to take a look around.

---

It turned out that I'd already provided her with an opening. Since I was Thane of Whiterun, that was enough to get me invited to one of Elenwen's regular parties. Delphine could get my weapons and armour smuggled in, and I could collect them once I was there. She directed me to a Bosmer agent of hers in Solitude, to give him what I would need on the inside. She could provide suitable attire for the party.

It also dawned on me that I'd need something else to wear between Solitude, and Katla's Farm, which is where I'd be picked up by the carriage. I found a spare mage robe that I'd taken, and found that I already knew its enchantment. It was bland and inconspicuous enough for this purpose.

"What do I do while you're in the Embassy?" Zahra asked.

"Keep an eye on Delphine for me. I don't completely trust her in this. It might just be a scam to get hold of my armour, or something like that."

Welcome back from your trip!


"Yes, I'm Dragonborn, and when I defeat a dragon, I do absorb power from it. But that's not its soul, any more than the so-called soul trap spell gathers souls from slain enemies." That was a very mortal notion. Since they don't get restored, they have this strange idea about what happens at death.’ - - I love Kothet’s understanding of ‘soul trap’.

Likewise, I enjoyed his thoughts on the differences between Aedric and Daedric life/death.

His non-mortal ideas fed perfectly into making Delphine’s demands to see for herself. Nicely done, that.

To top it off, Kothet’s thoughts about Alduin perhaps being of the Daedra was a fascinating observation. You are getting such fabulous mileage out of Kothet’s unique perspective.


Nit: ‘The Aedra chose a dfferent path for this world, of continous creation,’ – spellingx2

Acadian: You are surprisingly perceptive for a mortal. Of course Kothet's viewpoint has the weight of greater experience, so it must be the correct one.

Back to the regular schedule ...

-----------

Previously: Kothet met Delphine, and wasn't impressed. However, she was the only clue he had to the dragons/dragonborn situation.

-----------

23 - Esbern

I handed my armour, my war-hammer, and a carefully selected collection of potions to Malborn, the Wood Elf agent in the Winking Skeever. He set off for the Embassy, while I walked down to where the carriage was waiting. I changed into the more formal party gear Delphine had selected for me, and boarded the carriage.

Elenwen met me just inside the door, and she knew my name, even if she didn't know my face. I was surprised, as she must have seen me at Helgen, and I should have been conspicuous, as the only Dremora. I'd was certain that I'd seen her there, talking to Tullius as we were carted in. Like all Altmer, she was tall, slender, and quite attractive in an elven way. Which probably made her quite unattractive to the average Nord, who likes his women more ... cuddly?

Malborn interrupted us, mainly to get my attention, I think. When Elenwen wandered off back to her other guests, he asked that I should try and create a distraction, so he could sneak me into the off-limits part of the building, where my equipment was waiting.

Obviously, that distraction couldn't include me, or everyone would be looking my way. That was enough of a problem already, as most of the other Jarls and Thanes there had never seen a Dremora before, and were curiously peeking in my direction whenever they got the chance.

I had a few options. There was the Thane of Solitude, Erikur, who was apparently attracted to the Bosmer girl serving drinks, and could probably be goaded into making a nuisance of himself with her. I was reluctant to do that, however, as it might get her into trouble, too.

Most of the other choices were just as bad, but the half-drunk Redguard merchant who came in at the same time I did, a man name Razelan, looked like my best bet. I delivered him another drink, and persuaded him to stir a bit of life into the proceedings. He wasn't enjoying himself there anyway, and didn't mind getting tossed out.

After he'd managed to insult Elenwen, and most of the others, the guards all swarmed in to apprehend and eject him, blocking everyone's view of me. I took the opportunity to slip through a door behind the bar, with Malborn.

He led me through the kitchen, and I found my equipment waiting in a chest in the pantry. There was a door at the back of that, providing access from the private quarters, and my entry to the same. Malborn closed and locked the door behind me, warning me I'd be on my own.

I searched the rooms I now had access to, dealing with a few interruptions from Thalmor guards as they blundered in. I found nothing of interest, and headed out the door into the courtyard, hoping to find something in the Solar opposite. Of course, that meant dealing with more guards on the way, which I must admit, I quite enjoyed.

By the time I entered the Solar, I was wondering why I hadn't just stormed my way in to begin with. The Thalmor guards didn't put up much opposition, and it would have avoided all the masquerade of the party invitation. On the other hand, the party did keep Elenwen herself out of the way, and perhaps that's what Delphine had in mind.

In the Solar, I found Rulindil, the torturer in charge of the Thalmor dungeon, talking to a Nord informant, name Gissur. After eliminating them, I had a key to the lower floor, where I imagined I'd have a better chance of finding something useful.

There was a single Thalmor soldier guarding the cells. She didn't last long. Now I wanted to check out any containers, free any prisoners and generally disrupt things. I found a number of documents that I suspected Delphine would like to read, especially as one was about her. Another concerned Ulfric Stormcloak, but the third was on another man I'd never heard of; someone called Esbern.

Just then, some more soldiers came in at the top of the stairs, and they had Malborn with them. Before they could do anything to him, I attacked, and soon had a key to an exit that I suspected we'd quickly be needing. I freed the only prisoner I could find, and together we opened the trapdoor that led out.

It opened into a cave, and I could hear something animal-like ahead. I kept the others behind me, and it was well that I did, as it turned out to be a Frost Troll. As I struck at it, a fireball flew in from the mouth of the cave and helped put it down.

"Zahra! How did you know where I'd be?"

"Delphine mentioned that you'd be coming out here, so I was waiting outside. When I heard the troll, I came in."

"So where's Delphine, now?"

"She went back to Riverwood. You need to collect the rest of your gear there, at the Sleeping Giant. She took it all with her."

Malborn and the prisoner, a Breton named Etienne Rarnis, ran off in different directions. While Etienne had thanked me profusely, Malborn was complaining that he'd be a fugitive for the rest of his life. As if he hadn't anything to do with that situation.

---

Since I had my armour, and a change of clothing, even if it was a bit ostentatious, I didn't desperately need to go there right away. I re-read the dossier on Ulfric, and wondered if there was enough material here to extract a bit of gold from him. It did imply that he'd been quite informative, when he was their prisoner, and I suspected that Elenwen had a hand in that. Or some other part of her body.

Delphine would, I'm sure, be quite pleased with hers. It made her look much more important than I suspected she really was. But the one on Esbern was intriguing. The Thalmor clearly believed he was the key to knowledge of the new dragon situation, and had made him their highest priority. Perhaps he should also be mine?

The dossier mentioned Riften, but that wasn't very precise. Since Delphine was one of the Blades, perhaps she'd have a better idea where in Riften to start looking for him. I'd better go to Riverwood next, after all.

---

Delphine was surprised to discover that Esbern was still alive. She'd thought herself the sole survivor of the Blades. As for finding him, she told me that he'd most likely be in the Ratway, which is where the Thieves' Guild headquarters were. Anyone who wanted to hide would be down there. She gave me the impression that there was as much of the city down there as there was on the surface, so it didn't narrow my search much.

In Riften the entrance to the Ratway wasn't hard to find, but I imagined we were entering a hostile labyrinth, and the rest of the hunt wouldn't be easy. Getting attacked by a couple of low-lifes in the first tunnel just confirmed that.

There was a raised drawbridge blocking our way just a little further in, and we needed to jump down and find a way around it. Presumably a Thieves Guild member would be able to lower that drawbridge, or maybe there was another entrance somewhere that they used. I just hoped that it all connected together, and we weren't in the wrong part.

We encountered less skeevers than I'd expected, but that was mainly because they had low-lifes preying on them, and an abundance of traps. It all made progress slow and tedious. Eventually, however, we reached the Ragged Flagon, which seemed to be a Guild-run tavern, although they were unconcerned that we weren't members. Presumably just getting here was enough. A door at the back led further into the tunnels.

It wasn't long before we encountered some Thalmor soldiers, who were also looking for Esbern. That made sense, as we already knew that the Thalmor suspected he was in Riften, and they wouldn't have found him up in town. Why they attacked us wasn't as clear, but they did, so they died.

---

We finally came across a door that had multiple bars, and locks, and seemed more like a fortress than a beggar's cell. This was probably where Esbern lived. I knocked, and a voice told me to go away. I asked the voice if he was Esbern, and he denied it, of course. So I mentioned the 30th of Frostfall, and Delphine, and that changed his mind.

Once we were inside his little home, he explained that it was the date the Great War started, and he and Delphine had been at Cloud Ruler Temple, in Cyrodiil at the time. The two of them had separated, and had been on the run from the Thalmor ever since. When the Dragons re-appeared, he'd seen that it was futile to continue, and retreated down here.

"Why futile?"

"Because this is the beginning of the end-times. Without a dragonborn, there's no way to stop Alduin, and the world will inevitably come to an end."

"But I'm dragonborn, or at least the Greybeards tell me I am. I find it hard to believe, being a Dremora, but they assure me it's possible."

"Well, this changes everything. You need to take me to Delphine immediately. Or at least, once I've gathered what I need for the journey. Just a moment." He started to hunt around his cell, stuffing various items into his pockets.

"I think that's all," he said, "Let's go!"

Almost as soon as we went out the door, we ran into another group of Thalmor. The mage among them summoned a flame atronach, and I smiled at the poor choice. To add to their woes, Esbern countered with a frost atronach of his own. This man wasn't the frightened rat I had taken him for.

Esbern also knew all the shortcuts to get out quickly, dropping down grates in the floor, and ducking down side-passages that I wouldn't have considered. Soon we were standing back outside the Ratway entrance in Riften.

I decided to take the carriage to Whiterun, and walk to Riverwood from there. The carriages never seem to get attacked, and the road from Whiterun to Riverwood was about as safe as any. I'd cleared most of the area around it myself.

Kothet is making some fine progress in the main quest. He’s further along now than Buffy was ever interested in going.

Buffy can verify that most Nords don’t consider elves good breeding stock. Slender hips, small teats, can only produce a tiny number of runty little knife-eared young. . . . Nords do seem to want ‘sturdy’ women who can birth lots of big bearded baby boys.

Kothet’s Dremoran observations continue to delight due to their interesting perspective.

Very neat how Zahra the Jiggly was right there when he needed her.

I've fallen behind on Kothet's story 'cause of the holidays but I enjoy bits like the one above. Lots of subtle humor in this! The part when he runs into the gates at full speed had me lol'ing! I've probably had a character in the past who did the same thing.

A lot of insight in the second part I'd missed (with Alduin and Delphine Jend).

Acadian: I'm playing Morrowind at the moment, and there's a quest where the leader of an Ashlander tribe wants a high-born Telvanni bride, with just those features. I was tempted to create a mod to substitute a Nord. Kothet's not into breeding, but he likes his women robust for other reasons.

Renee: Kothet's just being Dremora again. He likes to point out where the Kyn are superior to the ordinary folk.

--------------

Previously Kothet had found Esbern in the Ratway in Riften, and escorted him back to Riverwood.

--------------

24 - Dragons

In the secret basement of the Sleeping Giant, Esbern pulled out a copy of an old book, that detailed the activities of the ancient Akaviri dragon-hunters. He told us that everything they knew about Alduin had been recorded on "Alduin's Wall" which was in a place called Sky Haven Temple.

Delphine and he compared notes, and she decided that his description matched what she knew of the Karthspire, a Forsworn citadel in the Reach. "We can go there together, or split up. I'll make sure Esbern gets there, if you want to travel separately. That might be better, as would attract less attention from the Thalmor."

We'd already been in the area, but hadn't taken that fork in the road. I also wanted to go back to the Tower, and drop off some surplus supplies, maybe make a few more potions for the battle against the Forsworn - I just knew that they wouldn't be friendly and let us through.
---
"Kothet, what are you expecting to find at Alduin's Wall?" Zahra asked me.

"I don't have any idea, but if it gives me any more information about Alduin and the other dragons, it has to be useful. I don't trust these Blades any more than you do, but they're on our side at the moment, so I'm going along with them."

"Even though it means fighting more Forsworn? I though you were getting tired of that."

"You'd prefer that I'd find some more spiders?"

She gave me that look.

---

Actually, the one good thing about the Forsworn is that they generally don't keep spiders as pets. And I do enjoy combat, wherever I can find it. Even if a dragon gets involved, as it did this time.

We were just crossing the bridge that led to the Karth Valley, when it attacked from the mountains behind us. After blasting frost at us, it moved on to attacking someone else, a bit further up the road. That turned out to be Delphine and Esbern. When we united against it, it flew on a bit further, and attacked the Forsworn, instead.

That was helpful, and we stopped to let it do our work for us. However, it wasn't long before it landed on the hills above the camp to recover. The Forsworn turned their attention to us, and we'd have to fight through them to reach either the dragon, or the cave we were seeking.

I could have ignored it, but Delphine insisted that we deal with the dragon. Once the Forsworn were dealt with, we discovered a hagraven between us and the place it had landed. Since the dragon didn't appear to want to get involved, we had to deal with her to get to it. As usual, she attacked with fireballs, and our fire resistance was decisive. The dragon, however, was breathing frost, and was now finally stomping in our direction as he did so.

By this time, however, Esbern had caught up to us, and was contributing his frost atronach to the fray. That creature is immune to frost, of course, and so was able to ignore the dragon's shouts. Zahra switched to firebolts, so that she could be more accurate at the expense of power, and I waded in with my war hammer.
With another dragon's knowledge gathered, we could now turn around and look for the cave entrance.

Naturally, it was all the way over at the far side of the camp, on the other side of the valley. And there were more of the Forsworn inside. They can't have been able to hear the commotion outside, or we'd have dealt with them earlier.

Past that entrance chamber, however, we were on our own. The only things left were puzzles and traps, left by the Blades to ensure only their people could pass.

Esbern recalled the symbols on the pillars at the first puzzle, and explained their meanings to me. The one meaning "dragonborn" would be the obvious key, so I turned the pillars to all show that symbol, and a drawbridge lowered to allow us further in.

In the room we reached next, the floor was covered in tiles with the same symbols. Something about them reminded me of the flame traps I'd seen in other ruins, so perhaps it would only be safe to tread on some of them. A quick tap of my foot on the first one with the dragonborn symbol seemed to confirm they were safe, so I told the others to stay where they were and set off across the room, being careful to step only on those.

The path didn't lead to the exit, but there was a pull-chain on the pillar where it did end. I pulled it, and stepped on another tile, this one with a different symbol. Nothing happened, so either I'd just disarmed the trap, or there never was one. Whichever was the case, we could all walk through safely, now.

The chamber we entered next was larger than the others, and a large stone head stood on the opposite side, beyond a strange spiral pattern on the floor. Esbern told me the face was that of Reman Cyrodiil, and the spiral was a blood seal, and my blood was the key to opening it. Just a little of it, not all of it, he assured me.

A few drops from a cut finger was all it wanted, and the stone head revealed itself to be a door. It swung up out of the way, and we could see stairs in the passage behind it.

---

Delphine and Esbern spent some time lighting the braziers with their torches, and soon there was enough light to see the wall we'd come here for. A huge bas-relief, depicting dragons and soldiers, and with symbols in a strange language among them. They didn't look like the dragon language I'd seen on the word walls, but Esbern told me that they were Akaviri, and he had some knowledge of that tongue.

I found out from what Esbern read, and things he already knew, that the dragons had not been united in the past. In the dragon wars depicted on the wall, there was an Atmoran faction, known as the Dragon Cult, who had joined one of the sides, and revered "their" dragons as avatars of Akatosh. Mostly, of course, they were just using the dragon conflict to advance their own mortal interests, and seize power on the newly-settled Tamriel.

The group of Nords that rebelled against the tyranny of the Dragon Cult also had dragons on their side, and learned the use of the Thu'um from them. The wall showed them shouting against Alduin, and apparently defeating him. But since he was now back in Skyrim, it was apparently not permanent. The wall also didn't give any indication what shout was involved.

Without Alduin, the dragon war had ended, with the Blades hunting down the dragons remaining. That part didn't make sense to me, as some of them were also depicted as allies earlier. But the Blades were Akaviri, not Nords, and presumably advancing their own agendas while they had the chance.

This fit in with what I already knew. If Alduin was the only one capable of restoring a fallen dragon, then without him, they'd be easily eliminated.

---

Since nobody knew what shout had been used against Alduin, it appeared that I'd need to go back to High Hrothgar to start my investigation. Nobody knows more about shouts than the Greybeards. Delphine seemed very reluctant to ask them for help, but my opinions and hers don't have much in common.

Arngeir reluctantly decided that this was all now beyond him, and I'd need to talk to Paarthurnax to progress any further. He was the leader of the Greybeards, and lived in solitude on the very top of the mountain. The path up was impassable to any without the right shout to dissipate the freezing winds that blew across it.

They could teach me that shout, because I was the dragonborn, and so capable of learning it, but that was the last they'd be able to do for me. Anything further would have to come from Paarthurnax.

I was surprised to encounter goats along the way, but it seemed that they were as vulnerable to the cross-winds as any other creature. They just had the ability to climb up the slopes, and weren't confined to the path as I was. And there were Ice Wraiths, that lived in the areas between the "wind traps" and preyed on the goats.

When Paarthurnax turned out to be a dragon, I wasn't entirely surprised. I knew from Alduin's wall that the dragons weren't all on the same side, but he explained that the dragons of that time didn't really have any affinities with each other, apart from temporary alliances to gain a transient advantage. Each dragon was out to establish its own place in the pecking order, and Alduin had held most of the cards. He was the "eldest" - first-formed - and moved swiftly to consolidate his position above the others.

The humans - joor in the dragon language - were the ones that banded together in their struggles. The Nords that opposed the Dragon Cult (allied to Alduin) had turned to him for assistance. He'd taught them the Thu'um, to put them on an equal footing with the others, and they'd developed a new shout to use against Alduin.

"Can you teach me that shout?" I asked.

"Krosis. Apologies. I cannot teach you that shout, because it is not known to me. It cannot be known to me, because the concepts it holds are inimical to dragons, and that is why it can only be used against them, and not by them. The mortals devised it to use against Alduin, and it has not been heard since."

"Then how can I possibly learn it? It seems that I will need it, or Alduin will be victorious, and the world will come to an end."

"Is that necessarily a bad thing? Is this world not just the egg of the next Kalpa? Perhaps the world must end, so that the next may come to pass."

"I have reason to like this world the way it is," I told him, glancing over at Zahra. "The next world will have to take care of itself."

"A valid reason," Paarthunax concurred. "There is a way you might learn that shout. The humans used an Elder Scroll to cast Alduin adrift on the winds of time. Time itself was broken by that act. That happened here, on this mountain, and that is why I have been waiting here for his return. I believe that if you were to read that same scroll here, at the Time Wound, then you might be taken back to that time, and learn the shout from those who first used it."

Paarthurnax couldn't help me find an Elder Scroll, either, but he did suggest that mages at the College of Winterhold would be the ones to ask. Esbern might also have clues from his study of the history of the Dragon Cult, although knowing where it had been in the past might not be helpful in the present.

’Actually, the one good thing about the Forsworn is that they generally don't keep spiders as pets.’ - -

This is great fun seeing the main quest play out since Buffy was never Dragonborn.

Previously: Kopthet has found Alduin's Wall, and discussed the implications with Paarthurnax. Now he finds he needs an Elder Scroll...

-----------

25 - College of Winterhold

"Why are you chasing around after this Alduin?" Zahra asked me. "Is it just because the Nords are all in a panic about the end-times?'

"Well, I assume there's fire behind that smoke. Legends are usually based on facts, even if they have got half of it wrong. But mostly it's because Jarl Balgruuf asked me to do so, ... and because that's why the Kyn gave me the spell to summon you."

"So we're headed for the College of Winterhold next?"

"Yes, I'd ask Esbern, but he seems to have the same illusions that Delphine has about needing to eliminate all Dragons. It's the way he was trained, and he knows no better, but it clouds his judgement."

"What about the Greybeards?"

"They have little contact with the rest of the world. How would they know where to find anything? The College is supposed to have a major library, and they might even have the scroll itself."

---

When we reached Winterhold, we found a senior mage waiting at the entrance, to screen potential applicants to the College. She wanted me to summon a Flame Atronach as proof that I had the skills of a mage. I pointed at Zahra. "I summoned her, and she's better than an Atronach." Zahra proved my point by turning on her flame cloak, and Faralda laughed.

"I think that qualifies both of you," she agreed, and admitted us both. "Report to Mirabelle Ervine when you reach the courtyard."

Mirabelle was certain that they didn't have any Elder Scrolls at the College. "But ask Tolfdir, the senior lecturer. He's just starting a new class in the Hall of Elements, and you might find that useful, too."

I assisted Tolfdir with a demonstration of wards, and then asked him about Elder Scrolls. He confirmed what Mirabelle had told me, that there were none at the College. "But we're all on our way to the excavation at Saarthal. That's just started, and there's no telling what it will turn up. Perhaps even the scroll you seek. Why don't you join us?"

---

At Saarthal, Tolfdir had us each search a section of the site for magical artifacts. The only one who found anything was a timid young Dunmer named Brelyna, and she found more than she was expecting, when a gate closed behind her, trapping her in a small section. Her shriek of surprise brought the rest of us running.
Tolfdir asked her what had happened.

"I pulled an amulet off the wall, and the gate closed behind me."

"Then perhaps the amulet is the key to opening it again," he suggested. "Put it on, and see what you can do with it."

Brelyna did so, and when she cast a flame spell at the place where she'd taken the amulet, the wall collapsed, revealing a passage. At the same time the gate opened, admitting the rest of us.

Tolfdir led the way into the passage with Brelyna following, and Zahra and I close behind. The other students stayed where they were, reluctant to risk the unknown.

We emerged into a small chamber, and a flash of light. "Did you see that?" Brelyna asked us.

"The flash of light?" I asked.

"No, the Psijic monk that just spoke to me. He said something about danger ahead, and the Psijics watching me."

"When did all that happen?" Zahra asked her .

Brelyna thought a moment. "I did notice that you all appeared to be frozen while the monk was speaking to me. He must have stopped time for you, which is why you didn't see anything but the flash."

Tolfdir decided that we ought to continue, and we could discuss the Psijic intervention later, back at the college. This section of the ruin had been sealed for some time, so there would likely be draugr in it, and we should all be careful. The moment he finished saying it, a coffin lid fell and a draugr stepped out to attack us. We encountered several more as we proceeded, and the source appeared to be a chamber with a remarkable number of coffins stacked up as far as we could see.

Tolfdir wanted to stay and examine the chamber, but urged the three of us to continue, and try and find out where it all led. "And the way out again, I hope," Brelyna added.

There were traps, and puzzle doors, which Brelyna appeared to be quite adept at solving. There were draugr to battle, which suited me better, as a big daedric hammer works well against ancient bones.

Tolfdir caught up with us just as we were about to open a large wooden door. Brelyna did so, to reveal a glow coming from the middle of a large chamber below us. As we got closer we could see that it came from a huge magical orb floating just above the floor. It appeared to be guarded by a draugr, who rose from his seat as we approached. I stepped forward to deal with him, but my blows had no effect at all!

Magic from my mage companions was equally ineffective, until Tofdir had the idea of turning his spells on the orb. Using a shock spell seemed to drain power from it, just as it would from a living mage, and the draugr's protection was gone.

He didn't last long under a barrage from the rest of us, and Brelyna got another amulet from him when he fell.

"I'll stay and guard this orb," Tolfdir decided. " You go back to the College, and notify the Arch-mage. This is something he'll probably want to examine personally. Quickly, now. This is important, even if we know exactly what it is."

There was a door behind the orb, and we went through it, rather than retrace our steps. It was a long way back the way we'd come, and there was the hope this would be quicker. The passage led to a word wall, and a chest. I learned a word of "Ice form" and we got a bit of miscellaneous treasure from the chest. No Elder Scrolls, though.

---

Brelyna reported our discovery to the Arch-mage, who set off for Saarthal, and directed us to the librarian, Urag gro-Shug, for anything he could dig up about Saarthal's past.

Urag didn't have anything. "Not any more, after Orthorn ran off with those books. If you want to get them back, you'll have to go find him."

We asked about Elder Scrolls. "If I had one, it would be locked away, but I don't. I do have a couple of books about the Elder Scrolls that you can look at. They may be of some help."

The two books he brought us weren't very helpful. One just described the effects of them on the reader, and the other was incomprehensible. I remarked on that to Urag, and he laughed.

"Yes, that one was written by Septimus Signus. Not many people can make any sense of his work. He's the main authority on the Elder Scrolls, or he's completely insane. Nobody's quite sure which. You can ask him yourselves, if you can find him. He went off north a while ago, looking for something, and we haven't seen him since."

Brelyna went to look for Orthorn, and we went looking for Septimus.

Nice observations from Kothet on the Blades vs Graybeards vs College.

I loved how you adjusted the early College entry and questing to suit your purposes. Giving the 'lead' role to Bre at Saarthal was a grand idea.

I notice this too, how Brel stole the show in your game.

Kothet seems to be taking it all in stride though. He seems to be quite a patient dremora. Not that he should be impatient with Brelyna, but he's patient with tracking down an Elder Scroll.

I had a bunch of half-dreams with Kothet in them. No real plots in any of them, but my subconscious mind kept scrolling over him for some reason. In my dream though, he was an American from coal-mining country (Kentucky, West Virginia...) and wore big boots. He drove a dirty old black Trans Am too. Weird.

Acadian: Brelyna is the obvious choice, because she's the only one there for the education, and she's already at Apprentice level, while her colleagues are just Novices.

Renee: Kothet may end up wearing big boots, but there is no black Trans Am in his game.

--------------

Previously: Kothet and Zahra and looking for an Elder Scroll. Their search started at the College of Winterhold, which has its own issues. They left Brelyna to deal with those.

--------------

26 - Septimus

I think Brelyna made the better choice. Septimus' outpost was on an island in the middle of the ice, well off the coast, and it was quite an unpleasant trip for those who prefer the heat to the cold. And Septimus himself was quite as obtuse as his writings. He'd found a Dwemer lock-box that he was convinced held the heart of Lorkhan, but he couldn't open it. We had to wait for him to finish rambling about that before we could bring up the subject of Elder Scrolls

We were able discover that he knew the location of an Elder Scroll, deep under Skyrim in an area he called Blackreach, a huge cavern you could only get to through the Dwarven ruins. And then only if you had the key, which Septimus could provide if we did a task for him at the same time. He wanted the Dwemer knowledge from the ruin that contained the scroll, and gave us a cube to record it. He said it would allow him to open the Dwemer lock-box.

---

"If Septimus knows where the scroll is, and he needs its knowledge to open the lock-box, why doesn't he fetch it himself?" Zahra wanted to know.

"Because it will be guarded by the Dwemer automata, and you know how magic-resistant they are. He needed someone like me to do the job for him. And I expect only mages from the college know how to find him, so I'm the first to turn up."

We weren't sure where Alftand, the Dwemer ruin Septimus had told us was the closest, actually was. We wandered around the coastal area a bit and headed inland when we got the chance. The valley led not to a Dwemer ruin, but a word wall with a resident dragon. At the foot of Mount Anthor, I learned a second word of Ice Form.

Except that "Slen" wasn't just the second word of Ice Form, it was also the first word of the shout that Alduin had used to restore Sahloknir at the burial mound above Kynesgrove. That was "Slen Tiid Vo" if I recalled it correctly. The other two words were still without any meaning to me, but now I knew that "Slen" meant "flesh", even if that wasn't all I needed to know about the word before I could shout it.

This was something I needed to discuss with Paarthurnax. If all the words were going to be on word walls for me to find, did he have any clues where I should go? And what other shouts would I need?

I'm sure Angeir would have reminded me that finding out my destination was part of finding the path. I didn't really know yet what I was trying to achieve. I'd got started on all this because I'd made a promise to Jarl Balgruuf, and the Kyn keep their word, but it had all grown beyond any reasonable expectations.

No, that wasn't the real start. That was when Alduin interrupted the Legion's executioner. Without that, it all would have taken a different course. I had become inextricably linked to that dragon, and I needed to find out why.

And I must admit, it was a change to have someone other than Mehrunes Dagon steering my life. Serving the Lord of Chaos does make for a confusing existence, and I much preferred this, even if I wasn't sure what this was. And a large part of my preference for this was Zahra, naturally.

---

We found Alftand at last. The surface buildings were a bit scattered, and the entrance to the underground part appeared to be through an excavation that wasn't actually part of the Dwemer buildings. Presumably the original entrance was now buried under the ice.

Apart from an encounter with a skooma-addicted Khajiit near the entrance, Alftand was just another Dwemer ruin, like Nchuand-zel or Avanchnzel, except the latter had no Falmer to deal with. This one had plenty, and the usual complement of spiders, spheres, and at least one centurion. The expedition before us had apparently dealt with one already. At the end, however, we encountered the last two members of that expedition, engaged in a fight over something. When the woman emerged victorious, she decided to turn on us, even before we'd hailed her. Not a very bright decision.

We presumed that the fight had been about where to go next. It appeared that there was a lift out of the ruin, and a mechanism in the middle of the room with a receptacle for the spherical key that Septimus had given us. The dead woman didn't have one, so I can only assume they intended to try and force the mechanism open.

It wasn't exactly clear how it would open, and whether it involved any of the traps the Dwemer seemed to like. I told Zahra to stand well back while I placed the sphere into the receptacle.

Not exactly a trap, but the floor around the "lock" did fall away when I did that. It actually dropped to form a staircase down to a lower level, but if you were standing in the wrong place, it wouldn't have been good for you.

We went down to a short corridor, and a door that led out into a huge cavernous underground city. This was presumably the "Blackreach" that Septimus had told us about. Mzark was just one of its towers, and we needed to find the right one.

We had to deal with a Dwarven Sphere, and a Falmer, almost as soon as we emerged. Rather than wander around just hoping to find the tower, I decided to check the nearest building, in case the place was inhabited, and we could ask for directions.

I was almost right. The place had been inhabited, but the alchemist Sinderion was long dead, and we found his skeleton on the floor. The number of dwarven arrows lying among the bones told me how he died. We knew his name, and his trade, from the journal we found, still clutched in his skeletal hand. There were ingredients all over the place, including some growing in containers. The Crimson Nirnroot was the focus of his studies, and the journal suggested that it grew only down here in Blackreach.

"Someone should follow up on that research, but it won't be us," I announced. "I'll take the journal with us, at least."

Zahra had found some other books. "Read this one, it will teach you something about alchemy," she told me, handing me a copy of De Rerum Dirennis. I did make use of the extra knowledge to turn some of the ingredients into useful potions before we left.

What I hadn't found, but wanted, was a map, or at least directions to Mzark. I cheered myself a little by reflecting that if Sinderion didn't have one, perhaps he didn't need one, and this place wouldn't turn out to be too big.

When we came back out of the building, I picked a direction to explore almost at random. We'd follow the roads, on the assumption that they'd lead to towers and other buildings, rather than Falmer camps.

Almost immediately, we found the entrance to a lift back to the surface. It was barred by spears, that retracted when I pushed a button on a plinth outside. There was no sign of any similar mechanism inside the lift itself, so you could come down and find yourself with no way out except back up to the top. If we found any more of these, it would be a good idea to open them.

Mzark was naturally on the other side of the cavern from where we entered. We were attacked by Dwemer automata, and Falmer, and their chaurus pets, but not in large enough groups to cause us major issues. There was a giant down here, too, but we just avoided him, and nothing happened.

The tower, when we finally found it, was a bit of an anti-climax. There were no defenders to battle through, just a ramp up around a huge spherical room that contained some complex Dwemer contraption with multiple buttons and a lexicon pedestal. The latter was the simple part, so we put the cube Septimus had given us into it, and two of the buttons opened and started to glow.

I enjoyed Kothet’s musings about ‘the meaning of life’ and ‘why am I doing this?’ type questions as he and Zahra the Jiggly searched for Alftand. As ever, he brings a unique perspective to things.

Poor Sinderion.

Blackreach is so easy to get lost in and the in game map doesn’t help much.

Acadian: I'm not sure I'd actually call the map of Blackreach a map. You can't find anything on it.

-----------

Previously: Kothet and Zahra had gone down to Blackreach, looking for the Tower of Mzark.

-----------

27 - Learning

Nothing else happened. We'd have to push the buttons, and find out what they did. I pushed the first(?) one. The one nearest to the lexicon pedestal, anyway. I had no idea what order the buttons needed pushing, or even if I had to push more than once. The large spherical part in the middle rotated when I did that, but nothing gave me any clue what to do next. Was this a better position for the sphere, or worse?

The second button did much the same as the first, except that the sphere rotated in a different direction. I decided at this point to look around the rest of the room, in case there was a book or note with instructions. I found instead the skeleton of someone who'd died trying to work the device. His notes just left me thinking it might be impossible.

He did write that more of the buttons became usable if the sphere was in the right position, whatever that was. I pushed the first two a couple more times, at random, to see what happened, and the third button did uncover, and light up. The lexicon cube also opened up and glowed.

"Ok, leave the first two alone now," I thought, maybe out loud in case Zahra decided to help. I pressed the third one, and the sphere didn't move, but the apparatus above it re-arranged itself a bit. I pressed it again, and got a new arrangement, this time more symmetrical. The light from above now flowed through the lenses, and it appeared that the lexicon was doing ... something.

The final button was also now opened, so I pressed that, and a container moved down into the centre of the apparatus, and then opened, revealing the scroll we had come for!

I went down to take the scroll, and indicated to Zahra that she should pick up the cube, as we needed to take both back to Septimus. When I had the scroll, I looked back to see that Zahra was frozen with her hand on the cube, and light was swirling around her and the pedestal. And then it stopped, and the cube closed and she took it.

I asked what she'd experienced, and she was unaware of anything. "I just picked up the cube, like you asked," she told me. "But I do have this feeling that I learned something. I'm just not sure what it was."

That was exactly what had happened to me in Avanchnzel, when I put back the lexicon there. In my case, it had been a lesson on smithing (dwarven, of course). Just what I needed at the time, as it happened. I hoped that Zahra had just learned something useful.

---

We left Blackreach through another lift in this tower, and found ourselves at a campsite somewhere in the mountains. It wasn't clear where we were, but following the path down the hillside eventually took us into familar territory, near Fort Dunstad. Now we had to trek back to the north, and Septimus' hideout again.

On the way, Zahra and I discussed the lexicon, and the way it absorbed and dispensed knowledge. Septimus had given us a cube he described as empty, and asked us to fill it with the knowledge from Mzark,. That meant that whatever it had taught her came from the contraption at the tower, and was presumably part of what Septimus wanted to know. However, she couldn't tell me anything new about opening boxes, and thought it was probably something related to spellcasting. "I think I'm using my spells more efficiently now, so perhaps it will just let Septimus do whatever he's doing better."

---

Septimus told us he didn't need the scroll itself. "The knowledge is inscribed in the cube now. Give me that, and I can read it."

I didn't see how he could do that, without one of the Dwemer pedestals, but Septimus revealed that he had help. Hermaeus Mora was guiding him, and was helping him with this task. The Daedric Prince also wanted the contents of the Dwemer lock-box, or at least the facts about what was in there. And the cube had revealed that it will take the mixed blood of each of the elven races to open the cube. Well, Dwemer blood alone would have worked, but you can't get that any more. The mixture would have all the parts that had been lost with the Dwemer, and would be an adequate facsimile.

He gave me an "extractor" to collect the blood. It appeared to have separate containers for each race, connected together by an apparatus that presumably sorted what it received. Having quickly instructed me on how to use it, he urged me back out to continue the work.

We were stopped by something that materialised in the passage. A blob of writhing tentacles, and eyeballs and a voice from elsewhere. Hermaeus Mora was speaking to me, telling me that he'd chosen me to replace Septimus as his agent in this realm. As soon as the box was open, he'd no longer be of use.

I heard him out, and agreed to what he demanded. After all, I couldn't get out of the cave until I did so, and from what I knew of Mora, he'd just take the facts he gathered back to Apocrypha, and file them away. He rarely did anything disruptive, but just poked his nose (tentacles, eyeballs?) into everything, and generally got in the way. Mortals, however, would have a harder time, as he considered them expendable, and if they got in the way of his quest for ever more facts, they'd probably get killed.

I decided that I should forget Septimus' request for now. Filling his extractor would only hasten his demise, if Mora had already decided he didn't need him any more. And using the scroll was much more important to me.

---

"Are we headed back to Paarthurnax now?" Zahra asked.

"Not immediately. I want to go back to Riften, first. There's a loose end there to clear up."

When From-Deepest-Fathoms had given me the lexicon to return to Avanchnzel, she'd implied that returning it would fix her problems, but I was beginning to doubt that. I now had a better idea of what the cubes and their pedestals did, and a little more would be needed.

"Have you been to Avanchnzel yet?" she asked me as soon as she saw me. "You must take the lexicon back, so these voices in my head will stop."

"I did take it back, but you need to return there yourself, if you want the memories to go away."

"No! I can't! That thing will kill me, like it killed Breya."

"I destroyed it. It won't kill anyone. And we can go in the back way, so you don't have to pass all the traps that killed Searches-the Roots."

"But why do I have to go back?"

"Because you didn't finish what you started. The lexicon was trying to teach you something, but you didn't give it enough time. The voices or memories are an incomplete lesson that doesn't make any sense. That's going to leave your mind confused, trying to sort out what you learned with half of it missing."

She didn't seem convinced, but was desperate enough to try anything. We led her out of town and back to the ruin.

"I thought you said we were going in the back way. This is the entrance we used the first time."

"It is, but we'll take a different turn at the first hallway."

Soon she brightened up. "This is the way I came out, but I went out that door over there."

"So you know that the other door takes us to the lift. We'll be right back at the pedestal with the lexicon when we get off at the bottom."

She hung behind us as we entered the room and walked down the steps. "Is it dead?" she asked, pointing at the centurion.

"Broken, incapacitated, destroyed, but it was never alive, so ..."

"Breya's dead, though. I thought I would be, too. I should have helped her fight that thing. Maybe together, we'd have been able to kill it."

"I doubt it. I barely managed myself, with much better armour and weapons. But don't concern yourself with what might have been, we're here for the lesson." I took her hand and placed it on the cube.

She froze, just like Zahra had done, while the knowledge flowed from the cube or the pedestal to her. And maybe something flowed the other way, too.

"Strange," she said when the light stopped swirling. "I learned how to use my bow better, but also how to safely harvest Harrada in Dagon's Deadlands. What use is that to me?"

"You might also find it in Cyrodiil. There were a few growing around the old gates there, and I've collected some myself." I realised that the information had come from me, the last time I was here. The cube had collected the new information, and wanted to pass it on.

"And the voices in your head?" I continued.

"Gone! And I understand what they were trying to tell me, now. The little pieces that wouldn't fit, now they do. But I have nothing to give you for what you've done for me."

"Perhaps you do," Zahra told her. "Kothet, you and I should see what the lexicon learned from her."

We took turns using the cube. If I had a tail like an Argonian, I'd now be able to swim much faster. And maybe my alchemy would be better, too. I hadn't known how many useful potions you could make from fish.

I was curiously awaiting Kothet’s encounter with Mora. I think it makes sense that he considers the slimeball with eyes to be relatively harmless. After all, compared to Daddy Dagon just about everyone’s harmless!

Brilliant tangent to close business with Fathoms! Ever so much more clever and fulfilling than the vanilla treatment of her lexicon problem. And Kothet even learned how to use his tail to swim better. . . oh, wait.

Whoa, Sinderion makes it to Skyrim in the 4th Era? Wow... I had no idea.



Yeah, that's not very bright at all. I love that part at the end of Learning. All those useless things they learn.

Acadian: I haven't yet decided if he'll encounter Mora again, but he may visit Sheogorath.

Renee: Yes, Sinderion is there, but he's a long-dead skeleton.

-----------

Previously: Kothet learned to swim properly.

-----------

28 - Throat of the World

"You have it! The kell - the Elder Scroll. You must read it at the Time Wound, and perhaps it will take you back in time to when the joor - the mortals - used Dragonrend against Alduin."

Parrthurnax landed on the ruined wall at the Throat of the world and gestured towards the swirling vortex next to it. This was the Time wound - Tiid-Ahraan - caused by the first use of the scroll.

"But can I learn that shout? You told me you could not know it because you were immortal, and the shout would be incomprehensible to you. I'm immortal, too, so won't I have the same problem?"

"Krosis, I was not clear. It is not just the immortality that's the issue, it's being a dragon. While you are dragonborn, and share some of our thought processes, we are not the same. The shout will make it hard for Alduin to fly, and he is invulnerable in flight. You do not fly, so it will not harm you in that way. And there are many more differences, that I cannot comprehend, but you will."

"Are you certain this is the right scroll?"

"See how the Time-Wound reacts to its presence? That is all the proof you need."

I was still apprehensive. That's not a very Dremora frame of mind. We're usually decisive, to the point of foolhardiness, but I wasn't just doing this for myself, or because I had orders to do it. A lot of others were counting on me to do the right thing. An entire world of others, if Esbern was right about Alduin and the end-times.

But I also saw no alternative. I had to do this, and see what consequences there were. Paarthurnax reminded me that Alduin would also be able to sense the presence of the Elder Scroll at the Time Wound, and was probably already on his way.

---

I had intended to ask about the risk of going blind from reading an Elder Scroll, but that opportunity was lost. I could easily understand how it happens, as the vision I had of the three Nord heroes battling with Alduin was so vivid and clear that it replaced anything my eyes were gathering.

I saw Alduin being forced to land by the Shout, but he was still a formidable foe, even without his invulnerability. Hakon was unable to make any impression with his battle axe, and Gormlaith was bitten, shaken, and tossed aside. Finally Felldir produced the scroll, and used it to send Alduin forward in time, to this era. Making him my problem, instead of theirs. Thank you, Nords!

But I had heard them use the Dragonrend shout. Now I knew the words, Joor Zah Frul, and somehow had enough understanding of them, perhaps because it was a mortal-created shout, that I needed no dragon knowledge to use it.

---

My vision did clear again, and not a moment too soon, as I could see the black shape of Alduin approach. He addressed me as "mortal" - clearly not knowing the difference between a Dremora and the men and mer he'd fought before.

"Die now, and await your fate in Sovngarde" Clearly he was assuming I was a Nord.

Paarthurnax interrupted and took to flight himself. "Lost funt. You are too late, Alduin! Dovahkiin! Use Dragonrend, if you know it!"

I needed no prompting. I shouted it at Alduin, who still managed to circle the summit once before crashing to the ground in front of me. I attacked with my war-hammer, beating aside his attempts to bite, so he summoned a shower of metors instead.

That was threatening Zahra, too, so I quickly used "Clear Skies" to stop it, then switched back to Dragonrend to keep Alduin grounded. Paarthurnax and Zahra were contributing their fire, but I don't believe they were having much effect on him. Perhaps he resisted fire like I do.

My war-hammer, however, was having an effect, and enraging the big black dragon beyond rationality. He should have been retreating, and using more of his magical powers, but he wanted to make this personal, and beat at me with his wings, and tried to bite.

Just when I thought I had him, however, it seems the rules changed. "Meyz mul, Dovahkiin. You have become strong. But I am Al-du-in, Firstborn of Akatosh! Mulaagi zok lot! I cannot be slain here, by you or anyone else! You cannot prevail against me. I will outlast you... mortal!"

Still he was calling me mortal. But it appeared he was right about my inability to finish him here on the mountain. Even with Dragonrend, I couldn't prevent him from flying off. And like the mortals with whom he was confusing me, I couldn't fly after him.

---

"Now what? Where did he go?"

Paarthurnax didn't know, but he did have an idea. Alduin had many minions among the dragons who might know where he'd flee, and if I could only capture one, maybe I could extract that information.

So of course I needed to know how to capture a dragon. Had that ever been done before?

"Yes," Paarthurnax told me, "the palace at Whiterun was built to hold a captive Dovah. Ask the Jarl, and he'll tell you." He went on to reminisce about the sad plight of his captive fellow dragon. "He couldn't even remember his own name," he told me.

---

Jarl Balgruuf was, to say the least, incredulous. "You want me to trap a dragon in my palace? In the middle of a civil war, when all either side wants is to find me distracted? Think again."

"So what if there was a truce in the civil war? If I can convince both sides that Alduin is a greater threat, they might hold off until that is dealt with."

"Best of luck with that. And don't suggest that this would be a good place for peace talks. Both sides think I'm their enemy."

"Actually, I'm hoping that the Greybeards would agree to be the hosts. Both sides respect them, and neither feels threathened by them."

Jarl Balgruuf raised one eyebrow, but didn't contradict me. He'd believe it when it happened.

---

Of course, Arngeir was appalled at the idea of the belligerants meeting at High Hrothgar, but he could see the logic in my request. This was the only place in Skyrim where it could happen. He didn't believe it was possible, though. Neither Ulfric Stormcloak nor General Tullius would possibly agree to it.

Telling each of them that the other would be there, and not showing would be a sign of weakness, got me what I wanted. Now it was just(!) a case of steering the negotiations in the right direction.

A couple of things helped: First, Elenwen decided to come along to ensure that nothing agreed would contravene the White Gold Concordat. That ensured that there would be an argument over her presence, which I could turn to my advantage. Second: I'd read her dossier on Ulfric, and knew some things about him that he thought were secret.

After I'd permitted Elenwen to stay, which Tullius regarded as a point in his favour, Ulfric demanded control of Markarth as a minimum condition for his agreeing to a ceasefire. I noted that he asked for "Markarth" and not "The Reach" even though that was what he meant. I sent Zahra over to tell Ulfric that I'd try and limit Tullius' conter-demands, and went over to confer with the General.

I knew that Ulfric's need for control of Markarth went well beyond the strategic. He wasn't thinking rationally in that respect, although if he could actually control the Reach, he'd have isolated Haafingar, and effectively would have the hold under siege. In practice, the Forsworn would become his problem, and he'd also have to supply Markarth from the opposite coast, so his grip would be weak.

I told Tullius "Ulfric will be expecting you to ask for Riften in exchange, and I know that Maven Black-Briar effectively runs that hold already. So you'd actually be better off with Dawnstar and the Pale, as a replacement supply route to Haafingar from Cyrodiil. Demand Riften, and let me talk you 'down' to accepting a minor hold, and some non-territorial consideration. He'll think he has the better deal, and won't push his luck further."

"That leaves both sides reliant on a neutral Whiterun as a supply corridor," Tulius noted. "The legion needs it South to North, and the rebels East to West. So we'd both defend it from the other side. I suppose that's your angle, as Thane of Whiterun?"

"It's part of it. My main purpose remains the situation with Alduin, of course."

That was funny when Alduin taunted about sending the ‘mortal’ Kothet to Sovngarde! Silly dwagon.

I guess bouncing Alduin into the future again was out of the question.

Kothet the diplomat!

Acadian: Kothet is not a mortal, so he'd be there the next time, too.

------------

Previously: Kothet had persuaded Ulfric and Tullius to negotiate a temporary truce at High Hrothgar, and was steering the terms to make the war harder to restart, and to give both sides a reason to protect Whiterun.

------------

29 - Trapper

And that's about the way it worked out. Ulfric was still reluctant to sign, but fortunately Esbern spoke up and reminded everyone of the greater threat. He also had the answer to a problem that had been worrying me: how to get a dragon to come to Whiterun and be captured.

"Every dragon's name is made up of three words of power. It's a Shout, that the Dragonborn can use to get its attention. It won't be compelled to come, but it should be enough of a challenge for it to want to investigate. And I've found, in the Akaviri archives, the name of at least one dragon whose burial site we can identify. Since that burial mound is now empty, it's one that Alduin has raised."

"The name is Od-Ah-Viing, which means something like 'Winged Snow Hunter' in the dragon tongue. Call that name from Whiterun, and I'm sure the dragon will appear."

Jarl Balgruuf nodded to Arngeir, who took the opportunity to firm up the terms of the treaty. Arrangements were made for the displaced Jarls to move to Windhelm and Solitude, and new ones were agreed to replace them. Elenwen had to agree to move her agents out of Markarth, so it was a good thing we had her stay.

---

Of course, Balgruuf wanted to know how I proposed to subdue the dragon once I'd called it. I told him about dragonrend, and how that would force the dragon to land. It was then just a matter of luring it into the trap that was already built in to the palace. The balcony was small, and there wasn't anywhere else it could go, so I had confidence of doing that.

Back in Whiterun, he issued orders that just he and I, and a few guards that had volunteered to operate the trap, would be allowed on the balcony. Not even his housecarl would be with us, although it was clear that she was chafing at the restriction. I was impressed that Balgruuf was doing this himself, and not delegating the responsibility.

---

We only lost one guard in the process. He'd foolishly run out with his bow to take on the dragon when it appeared, despite being told to stay back and leave it all to me. The whole point was to make this a one-on-one battle between the dragon and myself, so I'd have his complete attention. Once I had him grounded, I backed up into the building and he followed.

The Jarl gave the order at the right time, and the yoke descended onto the unsuspecting dragon's neck, and locked around it.

"You've gone to a lot of effort to put me in this humiliating position," he told me. "What is it you want of me?"

I asked him if he knew where Alduin had gone, after our battle at the Throat of the World. He'd heard about that, and had started to wonder if Alduin really was as powerful as he'd presented himself.

"He has gone to Sovngarde, where he feasts on the fallen Nords to restore his power. It is his privilege, which he guards jealously, as the source of his ascendency over the rest of us. The portal is at the temple of Skuldhavn, which can only be reached by flying. Can you fly?"

I could see his point. Unless I set him free again, and he flew me to Skuldhavn, the knowledge itself was useless. We haggled a bit more, and I agreed. I needed a little more from him, in particular his neutrality at least in any further conflict.

So now I had a means to reach Skuldhavn, and presumably Sovngrade from there, but Odahviing could only carry me. What about Zahra?

"Summon me when you get there. It's less unpleasant than not being there, and worrying about what might be happening without me. As your housecarl, I'm supposed to be with you."

Balgruuf said nothing, although I noticed that Irileth had joined him as soon as the trap had been sprung. And now I was opening it again, and he wasn't sending her away.

---

"This is as far as I can take you. Krif voth ahkrin. I will look for your return, or Alduin's."

I summoned Zahra immediately, and as soon as she appeared, she was hurling fireballs at the draugr archers guarding the entrance. They were soon joined by a dragon, which I brought down with dragonrend, and a number of sword-wielding wights. I needed to stop and heal before moving on.

Around the first corner there was another dragon, and more draugr, but now we had space to back up and draw them to us. Zahra could stand back out of their range, and pick off the stragglers, and it wasn't quite the frantic scrabble it had been at the beginning. I looked around the walls looming over us and planned our approach.

As soon as we could, we went up a level, and started to clear the walls. I didn't want any of the draugr getting behind us. We picked up a few helpful potions from chests, and managed not to use them all right away!

It appeared that the portal we were looking for was on the other side of the Temple, which may have been built through the tops of the mountains. There was certainly no sign of it from here.

---

It was about half-way through that temple that I started thinking: how did this all get here? Having time to think about things like that in the middle of battle can be a good sign, because it means that the fight has become routine, and the enemies aren't demanding my full attention. On the other hand, I'm also more likely to be interrupted by something I wasn't expecting, because my attention isn't focused as it should be.

But this was relevant to the task: it would give me some clue as to what was ahead. I was fighting draugr, the remains of men who clearly hadn't flown up here on their own. Had they been here since the Dragon Wars, just waiting for someone to visit? And who had built this temple? It wasn't something dragons did, and the style was definitely Nordic.

One possibility was that it wasn't as isolated in the past. Even mountains fell occasionally, and the path to get here may have been destroyed long ago. And if there was a portal to Sovngarde at the other end of all this, maybe some of these draugr were the ones who couldn't get in, and had to turn back.

---

I had more time to think now. What lay before me wasn't more draugr, but another of their puzzle gates. They usually left the key for anyone with an active mind to read, as they were there to separate the thinking from the unthinking. Yes, there above me were the symbols I needed. Except that there were four of them, and only three pillars to turn.

But there were also two gates to open. The two pillars nearest their clues stayed set, while I turned the third pillar first to one setting, opening one gate that led nowhere, and then the other, which opened the path forward. I ignored the chest behind the first gate, as I had no need to carry anything more.

Because I was in a thinking mood, I also recalled that these sorts of puzzles usually separated the parts where the enemies were numerous, but low-level, from the parts where they were fewer, but more dangerous. I shared that with Zahra, although I suspected she'd had the same thought herself.

As we progressed, I also started to notice a couple of things about our opponents. First, that a significant number of them knew how to Shout. More than the proportion of the living Nords, certainly. Perhaps that was because they'd lived in a time when the dragons were more numerous, and there was more opportunity to learn them. Although the Greybeards had told me it takes a long time meditating on the words of power, it appeared that some were easier to learn than others. Unrelenting Force, the first one I'd learned, was common knowledge among the draugr, and quite a few also knew at least the first word of Disarm.

The second insight was that the draugr exhibited little or no coordination as a fighting force. Each one attacked as soon as it saw us, usually targeting whoever was nearest. They also tended to do stupid things like trying to Disarm Zahra, who was only using spells. It didn't work on me, either, as I'd grown too strong for that, but at least it made sense to try, when the War-hammer I carried was doing so much damage.

Perhaps some of this was because they were all officers, wearing the horned helms that appeared to be a badge of rank. If the noises they made were language, perhaps they were all issuing orders and there was nobody of lesser rank to obey?

Awesome seeing how you get around the game's limitations like this.

That is funny too, those draugr trying to disarm an opponent who doesn't use weapons.


Kothet the strategist, as well.

It is great fun to read of the mid/latter stages of the MQ since I never did that.

’They also tended to do stupid things like trying to Disarm Zahra, who was only using spells.’ - - I used to love it when draugr wasted their time trying to disarm a mystic bow.

As ever, I enjoy Kothet’s observations regarding his foes. In this case speculating that the uncoordinated efforts of the draugr was perhaps the result of too many leaders and not enough followers.


Nit: ’It told him about dragonrend, …’ - - I vs It.

Acadian: It has been pointed out that the draugr have had their brains removed, and place in jars. That probably accounts for a lot.

Renee: There's the extra limitation of my using a non-standard race here.

----------

Previously: Kothet hitched a ride to Skuldhavn and then summoned Zahra to join him.

----------

30 - Sovngarde

Eventually we emerged on the other side of the Temple, or rather, the same side but higher up. We'd opened the door using one of those dragon claw keys, which we'd had to take from the draugr guarding the door. More of the high-level draugr were waiting outside, and a couple of dragons with them, but the final guard was a dragon priest.

As he saw us approach, he turned to retrieve his staff, which apparently was holding the portal open, as it closed as soon as he picked the staff out of its socket. However, that was just as I reached him, and he didn't have time to use it. I have no doubt that it would have cast some nasty spell, so I'm glad my timing was right for once.

I put the staff back, and the portal re-opened. There was an obvious discharge of energy around it, much like the flames in one of the gates we opened between the Deadlands and Tamriel. But this wasn't flame, which meant we probably weren't going into somewhere hot, like Dagon's Realm.

I picked up the priest's mask, unsure why I wanted it. Perhaps I wasn't sure I'd ever be back here, and wanted a souvenir, or proof to show to others. It was enchanted with a considerable Fortify Magicka, so I offered it to Zahra to use. She looked rather offended that I'd want her to cover her face, and suggested that I needed it more than she did. I'm not sure what she meant by that.

I stowed it in my backpack and headed down the steps into the portal to Sovngarde. Or somewhere. I hoped it would be where I could find Alduin, or all this fighting would have been for nothing.

---

I wasn't sure where we arrived, as a thick mist obscured everything from view. I could just about make out a paved path, so we set out to follow it. And when the path forked, I picked a direction at random.

We came across a Nord legionary, sitting on a rock next to the path. He told us that the mist was Alduin's doing, intended to prevent the dead from finding Shor's Hall and safety, while he flew above it and swooped down to prey on them. We let him follow us for a while, but when I turned back to ask him a question, a large black shape swooped out of nowhere and carried him off.

We were in the right place, then, and Alduin was definitely here, but we still had to find a way to bring him to battle. Perhaps locating Shor's Hall was the first step.

We blundered into the right location a short time later. Across a small stream, the mist was thinner, and we saw a very large man guarding the entrance to a bridge, which appeared to be have made from the skeleton of a whale. He hailed us as we approached, and told us his name was Tsun, tasked by Shor to decide who could enter.

Naturally he was surprised to find a Dremora asking for admission. "By what right do you claim that privilege?"
"As the Dragonborn. I come pursuing Alduin."

"Since you are not dead, you must face me in a warrior's challenge to gain admission," he told me, and unslung a huge axe from his back.

I nodded and did the same with my war-hammer.

He swung at me, faster than I though someone of his size could manage, but I managed to deflect the blow, and countered with a whack on his leading knee. It would have been enough to cripple any mortal warrior, but he just laughed and told me I'd proved myself.

He stood aside and let us pass. I glimpsed back from the bridge and was amused to see him rub that knee.

---

On the other side was a VERY large building with doors that reached up into the mist. I was surprised that the door I tried opened without much effort, although something that massive necessarily moved slowly.

Inside, we were greeted by a Nord in ancient armor, who introduced himself as Ysgramor, a name I'd heard somewhere, although I couldn't place exactly where. He told me that three of his fellow Nords had been waiting patiently for a chance to deal with Alduin, but Shor had given orders that they should wait for me.

They turned out to be Gormlaith Golden-Hilt, Hakon One-Eye, and Felldir the Old, the same three that had sent Alduin forward in time to become my problem. But also the same ones who had unknowingly shown me the shout I needed to finally defeat him. I would be glad of their help in dealing with the dragon. Their unfinished business was mine too, now.

---

We re-crossed the bridge, and together shouted "Clear Skies" to blow away the mists, hoping to reveal Alduin. They did clear, but a shout from the distance restored them again.

"Again!" Gormlaith called out, and we did so. Once more the mists were gone, only to re-appear as the dragon responded with his own shout.

Hakon was a bit discouraged by this apparent impasse, but I'd noticed that the mist wasn't as thick as before, and apparently Gormlaith had seen that too. "He's weakening! Once more, and he'll have to face us!"

We all shouted a third time, and now he saw the futility of trying to sustain the mist and flew down to engage us. Naturally he ran into four shouts of Dragonrend, but we got a rain of his fiery meteors in response. Felldir used Clear Skies to stop those, and we closed on the dragon.

It wasn't much of a fight after that. I'd bested him alone, and these three had equaled him when we separately encountered him before. Together, we were much more than he could handle. Much as with any other dragon I'd defeated, his flesh dissolved into leaves of flame, and dissipated, but now his skeleton did something similar, and the usual swirl of light that meant I was capturing his knowledge was absent.

Well, this wasn't Tamriel, so perhaps things happened differently here. I still had that vague feeling that I'd changed, even if I didn't know what it was. I didn't get to "unlock" a new Word of Power and learn a new Shout, but something was altered. Perhaps Paarthurnax would have some idea, when I went back.

---

Now that the mists were gone, those who'd been lost in it could find their way, and a straggling group was approaching from the valleys. At their head was a tall man dressed in regal clothes, that everyone else seemed happy to follow.

This turned out to be Torygg, the late High King of Skyrim. He'd not long passed from Tamriel, and was eager to tell someone about it. I'd heard the Nords' stories, which seemed to depend on which side of the Civil War the teller was on. They both agreed that Ulfric had challenged Torygg for his throne, and gone on to use a Shout to defeat him. Whether that was lawful or not, was a matter of debate.

Torygg told me that he'd been happy to accept the challenge, and would have been equally happy to lose, if it had been the duel that the tradition required. It was supposed to be a formal contest with blunted weapons, held at a mutually agreed neutral location, with the Jarls as judges and referees of fair play.

Ulfric had attacked him as soon as he'd accepted the challenge, right there in the palace. Torygg had been wearing no armor, and had only the ceremonial sword he used for official business. "If that was sharp, I'd have to be careful not to nick anyone's ears when I laid it on their shoulder," he pointed out.

He'd also lead with the only Shout he knew, Unrelenting Force, knocking the king down, even if it didn't actually injure him. A legal duel wouldn't have permitted Shouts, or any kind of magic. "But I didn't get the chance to stand back up. He was on me immediately, and thrust his sword through me before anyone could move. The duel, if it ever was one, would have been over as soon as I fell."

I'm sure that Ulfric would tell me a completely different tale, but there was a lot in this one that rang true. I'd read about the formal duels in a book about Orsinium, and what he'd described matched well. It was also very reminiscent of the way disputes were settled among the Kyn, although we didn't have to concern ourselves so much about letting the loser live, as he'd be restored anyway. The whole point was to allow rightness to determine the victor, and to eliminate all other inequalities from the process.

We chatted for a while about what he thought Ulfric had been trying to achieve. Did he really think he could take over the throne that way, or was he just trying to eliminate Torygg completely?

"I don't know," he told me. "I never quite understood his motives. We both wanted Skyrim to be free of the Thalmor edict against Talos-worship, but differed completely on how to achieve it. I preferred to wait, and let the Empire regain its strength, especially as the elves were quite ineffective, and Talos was perhaps even more popular now. But Ulfric had something else against them that he wasn't sharing with the rest of us, and now I'll never know what it was."

Poor Kothet. Offered that mask to Zahra the Jiggly because he is sweet on her and it only upset her.

'… his flesh dissolved into leaves of flame, and dissipated, …’ - - Very nicely put!

This felt very epic as Kothet and his ancient Nordic pals finally put down Alduin – hopefully for good.

Acadian: It ain't over 'til the big guy shouts! Tsun sends them back in this one, and it still ain't over.

----------

Previously: Kothet and company defeated Alduin in Sovngarde.

----------

31 - Return

Tsun came over to congratulate the team on their defeat of Alduin. And the three Nords, and everyone else who had come out of the mists were thanking me and Zahra. It wasn't clear to me what it was, but something about this realm restricted their capabilities. Alduin had been exploiting that, and it didn't apply to me or Zahra, so we had been able to break his hold. Another thing to discuss when we got back.

That was the next thing on our agenda. Tsun told us he could send us back as soon as we were ready, but first he had a gift from Shor, a Shout that would summon one of the three heroes that had helped me defeat Alduin. I expected the usual swirl, but again nothing. The words just appeared in my mind, and I knew how they worked. I didn't even get to see them in writing, as I had on the word walls, or when the Greybeards showed them to me. Even Parrthurnax had lit up the word he taught me in the ruined wall at the summit.

Things clearly followed different rules in this different realm.

Tsun shouted at us, and we found ourselves back on the Throat of the World, at the Time Wound. Paarthurnax was apparently expecting us, and had invited a large number of his friends ...

---

"You know, that was a lot like when the Greybeards proclaimed you Dragonborn. All that shouting, and the ground shaking, and you in the middle trying not to become deaf."

I laughed. "I suspect the idea is that everyone else knows what happened, even if they're miles away. Why send a courier when you can shout that loud?"

Zahra considered that for a moment, as we walked back down the path towards Ivarstead. "Talking of shouts, are you going to try that new one, that Tsun taught you?"

"No, because I can only have one summoned companion, and I prefer you to any of them."

"Not even that Gormlaith Golden-Hilt? If she fills that armour of hers, ..."

I changed the subject. "I didn't get to discuss shouts with Paarthurnax, like I'd hoped. He flew off as soon as the ceremony was over. And Odahviing only stayed long enough to tell me I could call him again. It seems like the dragons have a new order to establish among themselves, before I'll get to spend any time having a conversation with them."

"So what do we do now?"

"I want to go to Windhelm, and have a few words with Ulfric Stormcloak. Now I've heard Torygg's side of that story, I'm getting more curious about Ulfric."

---

"I'm here to report on the progress of my campaign against Alduin, which of course determines the extent of the current truce. I can report that Alduin himself has been defeated, although I had to follow him to Sovngarde when he fled there. The other dragons he raised remain a threat, however, so I don't consider this over."

"You went to Sovngarde?" Galmar Stone-Fist interrupted. "No-one returns from there!"

"No mortal returns," I replied, "which defines what it means to be mortal. I, however, am Dremora, which means that I can, and do, return. Perhaps this eventuality was foreseen when I was selected by the gods for this task."

That appeared to make sense to the Nords. Ulfric paused for the briefest of moments before asking when I thought the dragon menace would be ended, and he could get back to attacking the Legion.

"I do not know how many other dragons he restored, nor whether they still feel themselves bound to his cause. I need to consult with those who might have that information, some of whom may themselves be dragons, and thus hard to track down."

Galmar was still intrigued that I'd seen Sovngarde, and wanted to know more. "Is it full of heroes, and mead, like they tell us?"

"Or heroes full of mead, like you'd want to imagine yourself? Yes, it is. I saw Ysgramor there, and Jurgen Windcaller, and Gormlaith Golden-Hilt - you'd like her - among others. And I even met with High King Torygg, newly arrived from Solitude. He told me a lot about Ulfric, and the way he died."

"Why did you do it that way?" I asked the Jarl. "Did you suspect he knew something about you and Elenwen?"

Galmar's eyes widened, and he looked at his Jarl, as if he suddenly didn't know the man. Ulfric, however, looked like he was about to explode.

It takes time to utter all the words of a Shout, and Unrelenting Force is built up and released on the final word. That gave me time to raise a ward. (Thank you for that lesson, Tolfdir.) The ward and the shout cancelled each other out, leaving Ulfric rushing at me with his sword drawn.

Ice Form is a different Shout. With the first word, Iiz, Ulfric slowed considerably, and the second, Slen, stopped him completely. Nus froze him solid where he stood.

"The fourth word is 'Shatter'", I announced, pulling my Daedric War-hammer from my back, and Ulfric duly did so.

Galmar's eyes were still as wide as they could be, and I saw him reach for his axe, before a glance at Zahra, who was showing just a hint of her flame cloak, made him decide not to.

We turned and left without a further word, knowing nobody dared to try and stop us.

---

"So, does General Tullius get to win the war, or do you have something similar in mind for him?" Zahra asked.

"Neither. I don't believe it was ever the Emperor's intention to let Tullius defeat the Stormcloaks. That would leave the Nords feeling they'd been conquered, and what the situation needs now is for the uprising to subside naturally, without its head."

"However," I continued, "I'd like to be sure of that, so I want to take the opportunity of his visit to Solitude for his cousin's wedding to talk to him."

"And let him handle Tullius?" Zahra presumed.

"Who better? Tullius won't like it - all Generals want victories, even if they aren't the best outcomes, but he'll obey orders, like a good soldier."

"I have another reason for visiting Solitude," I added. "I'll tell you more about that when we get there."

---

"So Vittoria Vici is the Emperor's cousin, and her bridegroom-to-be is a Stormcloak?" Zahra sounded confused.

"When you're rich, those differences aren't the life-and-death ones everyone else has. It's more a question of where you deem it more profitable to invest than anything else. They'd prosper whatever the outcome of the conflict, and will probably regret the loss of business supplying the two sides when it ends."

Word had got out about my and Zahra's roles in the defeat of Alduin, and the wedding had become a bit of a celebration of that as well. So we found ourselves sharing the balcony as guests of honour when she addressed the crowd. The Emperor was conspicuously absent, as there were rumours of an attempt on his life, sponsored by someone yet unidentified on the High Council. We'd all be going to his ship, the Katariah, for the reception after this.

It struck me that if he'd been here, this was the perfect set-up for an archer to get a good shot at him. Even with the bride and groom standing in front of him, a patient assassin would find their mark. I stood up, and moved to the front of the balcony to look, ... and got in the way of an arrow headed for the bride.

In my Daedric Armour, which I was wearing to impress the crowd, I was well-protected from a broad-head arrow meant for a soft target. It clattered down to the flagstones below, and I hastily ushered the bride and groom to safety, as Zahra hurled a fireball towards the battlements where the arrow appeared to originate.

"Did you see the archer?" I asked, when we were all inside.

"No, but there weren't any guards up there either, so I used a wide-area spell that didn't need to be accurate. I still have no idea if it hit anyone. Our would-be assassin probably got away."

Back to the land of the living.

By Azura! Even with provocation, Ulfric was unwise to take on a Dremora who happens to be The Dragonborn! Nicely done, Kothet; I smiled at the prospect of Ulfric and Torygg continuing their duel in front of a mead-enriched crowd of dead Nords in Sovngarde.

Yup, I think an audience with the Emperor may be a good idea. Just gotta keep him alive I guess.


Nit: ’…a Shout that would summon one of the three heros…’ - - heroes?

Acadian: Well, there's alive, and there's "presumed dead", and they could be the same.

-----------

Previously: Kothet got in the way of an arrow meant for Vittoria Vici, and being armoured, with no ill effect. Now he gets to meet the Emperor.

-----------

32 - Katariah

The party going over to the Katariah was smaller than it would have been before the arrow incident, but Zahra and I had earned our place among the guests twice over, now. We were among the few permitted to keep our weapons. Although, how you disarm a mage is beyond me.

The reception on board was sumptuous, and with fewer guests than originally planned, it was much easier to meet everyone. Titus Mede II indicated that he'd like us to stay after the others left, and he'd discuss the situation when everyone had gone.

Vittoria and Asgeir were of course the first to leave. They had a honeymoon to start. The other guests all had to leave together on the next boat back to the docks, which left just Zahra and myself.

We followed the Emperor back to his cabin at the stern. He shooed out the guard, telling him we had matters of state to discuss. "And I can pour the wine myself, you know." As soon as we were comfortably seated, he did so.

"Tamika's?" I asked, after my first sip. "This brings back memories of guarding a gate outside Skingrad. The one Dagon left me at, when they all closed."

The Emperor was impressed by my knowlege of wines, but Tamika's Vineyard was one of Tamriel's finest even before the Oblivion crisis. Her planting of vines on the area scortched by the gate was a stroke of genius, and the wine from that patch was famous above all others. The effect had faded over the years, and this wasn't one of that vintage, but it was still distinctive enough for even me to tell the difference.

---

My assessment of his strategy with the Civil War proved to be accurate. He'd constrained Tullius by limiting his reinforcements, to make sure he could contain Ulfric, but not defeat him, or provoke a larger uprising. Now perhaps, it was time to draw down the Legion presence further, and maybe recall the General to a front where he'd be happier.

"But what of the dragons?" Titus asked. "I'm sure Tullius will cite those as a reason he should stay."

"They don't represent a threat any more," I replied. "Without Alduin, they're independent, and frankly care nothing for the affairs of mortals. They can be induced to take sides when it benefits them, but I don't see anyone having the knowledge of their desires to do so. If anything, they may be a reserve asset against the Thalmor, whose aims definitely do not seem to concide with the dragons'. And I may be able to gain their respect as the conquerer of Alduin."

"Your main threat seems to come from your own people," Zahra added. "Kothet and I are certain that archer at the wedding was sent there to assassinate you."

"Oh, you don't have to tell me. I'm only too aware that my succession is being plotted all the time. I have no legitimate heir, so everyone and his dog feels they could take my place, if there were to be an accident."

"Then I'm surprised that you're not taking more precautions," Zahra continued. "A guard using a Detect Life spell, or better yet, a ring with that enchantment, should be with you at all times."

She demonstrated the spell. "If there is anyone around, you see them, even through walls, like that guard outside your door."

"I sent the guard away. If there is someone outside, they shouldn't be there."

As we watched the glowing shape, it approached the door, and silently opened it. We saw the glow enter the room, but nothing else. Zahra cast another spell at the glow, and revealed ... a naked Bosmer woman carrying a dagger, with a bow and quiver on her back. She froze when she realised we could see her. Zahra and I were between her and Titus, so she'd never have reached him if she tried.

"Oh, she's beautiful!" exclaimed Zahra.

"No, that's not beautiful," replied the Emperor. "Beautiful is for putting on pedestals, and standing back and admiring. Most of the ladies of my court are like that. The further back you stand, the better.

"No, this young lady is what I'd call pretty. The kind of looks that make you want to get closer. In her case, extremely pretty."

He turned to address the newcomer. "Why don't you put those weapons down on the table there, and find yourself a robe in the closet? We have a lot to discuss, don't we?"

"And I'll take whatever you're using to give you chameleon," Zahra added.

Titus poured another glass of Tamika's for the Bosmer. "What's your name, pretty young lady?"

"Gaenathilwen, or G'wen for short. But you can call me 'failure', because this is the second contract I've messed up. I was supposed to kill Vittoria as a warning, and then you."

"You haven't completely failed yet," Titus replied. "I have need of your services, but not quite in the way you'd expect."

He explained what he meant. The Emperor can't just step down without naming a successor, and frankly there wasn't anyone else fit to take the job. "The Empire would actually be better off with an internal struggle to replace me than if I picked sides. Concentrating the remaining power of the Empire in anyone's hands now would just encourage them to waste it."

"So I need to go away and leave them to their own devices, and that apparently means I have to be considered dead. So you will report your success, even though it didn't exactly happen. No body to confirm it, of course. You'd have dumped that over the stern into the river. The mudcrabs will strip a corpse in a couple of hours, and the bones will wash away in no time."

"So all we need to figure out is how you killed me. I'd like it to be something special, out of the ordinary, and a topic of conversation. That will help convince people that it's true."

"I think she'd have poisoned her nipples," replied Zahra. "You wouldn't have been able to resist that temptation."

"And I'd have died happy," Titus laughed. "That's a great idea, as it also accounts for why she got rid of my body. Poisons leave traces that a competent mage can identify. That can help track down the source of the poison, and thus the assassin, or her sponsors."

"Why did you come looking for me naked anyway?" he continued. "I know I have a bit of a reputation in that regard, but I don't think that was what you had in mind."

"I had to swim out to the ship, which got my leathers totally soaked. When I noticed that I was leaving a trail of drips that anyone could follow, I left all my wet gear down in the hold. I figured that with full chameleon, nobody was going to see me, so why not?"

"And with those rings of yours, I can leave this ship with Kothet and Zahra. But don't worry, G'wen, there are plenty of places for you to hide here, before you get away. I had a lot of them constructed so I could disappear if this ship was ever boarded, and even the crew don't know most of them. You'll be safe until the hunt dies down, and quite comfortable, too. I wasn't planning to suffer while I was confined, after all."

"What are you intending to do, if you're not Emperor any more?" G'wen wanted to know.

"I'm going to become a pirate. I have a ship waiting off the coast, and we'll be harrassing the Thalmor supply lines to Skyrim and High Rock. Keeping them in check that way will be more effective than the big confrontation everyone expects from the Empire and the Legion. That threat is still needed, though, to tie down their main forces on the borders."

"Can you trust whover gets control after you to see it that way?" I asked.

"No, but without a decisive advantage, they'll have no choice but to sit it out. If they find a way to defeat the Thalmor that I haven't seen, that's all to the good, but I doubt that will happen. And likewise, the Generals won't let them do anything too stupid, and let the Thalmor win. It's that inevitable stalemate that's making me want to go do something about it."

We continued discussing the arrangements, and firming up the details of the fake assassination, to make sure we had a story that was watertight. G'wen would be reporting most of it back to the Dark Brotherhood, who'd been given the assignment. She also had to try and contact the person who'd made the request in the first place, as the Emperor would prefer that they'd have their plans disrupted, too. "If you get to kill him, he can take my place for Sithis, can't he?"

G'wen wasn't used to wearing just a thin silk robe, and she kept having to wrap it back around herself, whenever she noticed that it had fallen off her breasts. Half the time she didn't, and she was quite distracting. Perhaps that was why Zahra's robe, which was usually magically fixed in place, was also falling open from time to time.

The Tamika's could possibly have been contributing, too, although none of us were drinking that much. We needed to be coherent to make our plans, after all. But we did all feel quite relaxed.

Zahra was pointing out that the two of us had to have left before G'wen arrived, as the Emperor would naturally have employed me as his taster, just in case. As an immortal, the poison would have been an inconvenience, at best. "You know you'd like that job," she laughed.

"But would you let me take it?" I asked her.

"Do I get to choose? You're the one who summons me, aren't you? You do what you like."

"What I like is a contented housecarl. So your opinions matter."

That was what she wanted to hear. "You go ahead and taste G'wen, and I'm going to taste Titus. It's only fair to her."

How do you disarm a mage indeed? I always liked to imagine the use of McB’s invention ‘null iron manacles’ and pretended that is what TES used in their ‘start as a prisoner’ openings.

Ahh, enjoyed the tribute to Tamika’s fine wine!

Clever plan to fake the Emperor’s death.

That Kothet quite cares about Zahira shows in his comments and manner.

Kothet, safety taster for poisoned nipples!


Nits (spelling):
-’…If anything, they may be a reserve asset against the Thalmor, whose aims definitely do not seem to concide with the dragons'. And I may be able to gain their respect as the conquerer of Alduin." - - Coincide. Conqueror (unless conquerer is a UK spelling I’m not aware of).
- "Can you trust whover gets control after you to see it that way?" - - Whoever.

I'm thinking we both should have meant whomever?

Heh, it is dialogue so I'll leave that to however you want to portray Zahira's level of grammarian correctness.

[censored], I've fallen so far behind. Been busy, and all that.

Ha ha Zahra "looks offended" because of the mask. That's lovely. Whoa, I didn't know we can clear mists with a shout. To this day, only one or two of my characters have used shouts, but that's about to change soon.

That's also neat we get to see Torygg in Sovngarde. Even though all of this is spoilers to me, I don't really care atm. My memory's pretty bad; chances are when I finally do the main quest I won't remember what happens.

I'll have to catch up on the next two chapters later on. Fun to read so far, though!

Acadian: Since Titus is only there for the DB quest, and Kothet wouldn't be doing it, this was about the only option that fits. History will show an assassination, and Kothet's story can continue. G'wen is a useful tool for probing the Kothet/Zahra side, too.

Renee: Who you meet in Sovngarde is a bit random, and a bit "who's dead already". You might meet any dead Nord - Ulfric or Rikke if you completed the CW quest line, or the poet Svaknir if you did the Bard's College quest. Torygg is pretty well guaranteed, but may be hard to find, as he's out in the mist. Ysgramor, Jurgen Windcaller, and a few others are in the hall, and easy to locate.

------------

Previously: Kothet and Zahra visited the Emperor on his ship the Katariah, and prevented an assassination.

------------

33 - Madgod

We delivered the Emperor Titus to a remote location on the northern shore, where a small boat was waiting.

"Bring G'wen here when she's ready to join me," he told us. "I need her by my side, not unbalancing the succession struggle in my wake."

I suspected that wasn't his only motivation. After Zahra had helped him break the ice, Titus and G'wen had got along very nicely. And that's all I'm saying, even if I did have as much fun as he did.

We'd told G'wen how to find our Tower, in the remote hills of the Reach. Although we hadn't been spending much time there recently, that was mainly because we'd been busy with Alduin, and it wouldn't hurt to just relax there for a while and wait for her.

First, however, she had to report back to the Dark Brotherhood, and deal with the person who made the contract with them. That gave us time for a side-trip on the way there.

---

"Titus left orders for Tullius to be recalled to Cyrodiil," I told Zahra, "but he has no control over the Thalmor, and in particular, Elenwen. I can do something about her, I believe."

I'd noticed the mad beggar in Solitude ranting about "the Master being on vacation", and I had a pretty good idea what he meant. I soon got directions to the Pelagius wing of the Blue Palace, and permission to investigate its haunted nature.

"Torygg's widow is a looker, isn't she?" Zahra goaded. "Do you think Titus features in her past adventures?"

"She's discreet enough that it doesn't matter," I replied. "Torygg certainly didn't know, or didn't care."

I continued into the clutter of the abandoned wing of the Blue Palace, removing the spider webs without drawing attention to them. It wasn't long before we walked through the portal I'd been expecting and found ourselves somewhere else.

Two men were seated at a dining table in the middle of a clearing in a wood. One of them I knew to be the Daedric Prince Sheogorath, with his characteristic divided suit of red and blue, but the other was a complete stranger to me.

The Madgod introduced us to his guest, King Pelagius III, whose wing of the Palace we'd just left. He was a bit surprised to find Dremora coming from Tamriel to find him, but no matter. We were there now, and we could help with his current task.

I noticed that I was now wearing a suit of fine clothes, just like I'd worn to Elenwen's party, and my armour was nowhere to be seen. Zahra had had a change of outfit too. Sheogorath has a really dirty mind, if not two. It looked good on her, although I got the impression that she was a little annoyed at not having been consulted.

Sheogorath handed me a familar staff. It was the Wabbajack, one of his special toys. Apparently, whatever he wanted me to do, this was all I had to do it with.

"Pelagius needs to cheer up a bit. He's been depressed for too long now, and the other side needs its turn. You're going to help him. Now run along, and see what you can do."

I looked over at Zahra, and couldn't help thinking she'd cheer anyone up, but Pelagius was a special case, and this would take more than that.

There were three arches around the clearing, and it didn't seem to matter which way we went, so I picked one at random. I found a bed in the middle of the forest with Pelagius sleeping in it. It seemed that I was now a part of his dreams, and various enemies appeared to attack me. As each materialised, I hit it with the Wabbajack, and it turned into something harmless. Sheogorath's voice told me I'd done what was needed, and I should move on.

The next arch led me to an arena, with two viewing areas overlooking a pit where a pair of Storm Atronachs were fighting. On the other side, someone sat on a throne flanked by two bodyguards, and apparently my Atronach was fighting aginst his. I saw no point in interfering with that battle, as I didn't even know which was which. Instead I turned the Wabbajack on the bodyguards, as that was the sort of thing Sheogorath himself would do. They both turned into wolves, and attacked my "opponent".

"You're doing well, just one more trial"

The third arch led to another clearing where two men were fighting. One huge, who was apparently Pelagius' Anger, and one tiny, his Confidence . Sheogorath wanted me to change something, so I used the Wabbajack on each of them. And again, as every time the initially large one hit the little one, he'd shrink again. I was getting worried that the staff would run out of charge, but eventually I got them to swap sizes.

Sheogorath told me to return to the dining area for my reward. There, I declined his offer of keeping the Wabbajack, as I had something else to ask of him.

Actually there were two. First I wanted to know about how he'd given his powers to the Champion of Cyrodiil to help him defeat Jyggalag. "That was something like what you just had me do for Pelagius, wasn't it?"

"Yes, and no. Pelagius isn't a Daedric Prince, so he didn't need anything quite that drastic. Jayggalag, being me in a bad mood, was a Daedric Prince. And I'm much better off without him, especially as I got the Champion of Cyrodiil in his place."

I asked him to explain.

"When I was in my Jyggalag mood, I wanted perfect order, and the only thing that's perfect is nothing. So I'd destroy my entire realm, trying to achieve that. And when you try to achieve nothing, you usually succeed.

"Jyggalag's a nasty violent type, and the Champion was a nice ... violent type. But that's what I needed. I let him take over my realm and it changed while he was alive. When he died, I took over again, and it all flowed back to me. So he's part of me now, in place of Jyggalag. I can still get violent when it's needed, but not so indiscriminately.

"I have all his knowledge now, and the understanding, too. That's what Hermaeus Mora keeps forgetting. Facts don't mean anything if you don't understand them. The Great Library of Jyggalag did the same thing, collecting useless facts, so I had it destroyed. Kept Dyus, of course, as he was the understanding part. And he knew all the facts, anyway. They didn't need to be written down in books as well.

"Knowledge is something you can give to many people, and it's not divided; they each get it all. And maybe even more than that. If I divide an apple and give away the slices, each person gets a slice of apple. If I explain 'apple' to them, they each get 'apple', and if one of them knows 'tree' as well, he could get 'orchard'. And pigs to eat the windfalls, and yellowjackets to eat the ones that rot, and pretty soon, you can't live there any more."

Even though it was Sheogorath telling me, it made some kind of sense. I had some idea how Alduin might have come by his power, without being a Daedric Prince himself.

The second thing I wanted was to draw his attention to Elenwen. She'd just had her plans for a full-blown civil war in Skyrim fall through, and she might be in a delicate state of mind at present. Perhaps the Madgod would take a small detour on his way back to the Shivering Isles?

---

We found ourselves back in the Pelagius Wing of the Blue Palace. I was wearing my armour once more, but Zahra was still in the same outrageous outfit Sheogorath had given her.

"Are you going back into the main palace dressed like that, or what?" I asked. I knew she could summon her usual attire with a simple spell, but she hadn't, yet.

"I'm still wondering what he intended, and if I shouldn't humour him, at least until we what see the reaction is," she replied. "And I have this urge to ask Elisif for her opinion. Maybe she'll want to wear it."

I understood what she meant. Elisif had been culturing the popular belief that Torygg's death had made her a little eccentric. That was actually a clever ruse to have Tullius treat her as a harmless puppet, and not have her replaced. Now that need was over, who knew what she'd do.

However, I now had the mental image of Elisif sitting on the Jarl's throne in that outfit.

With the Emperor on ice, back to work for the Dremoran Duo.

Eeek! Sheo! Actually rather clever to ask for the MadDweeb's help to curb Elenwen.

"Torygg's widow is a looker, isn't she?" - - She certainly is.

"Jyggalag's a nasty violent type, and the Champion was a nice ... violent type." - -



Nit: 'Actually there two.' - - Missing some words I think?

Acadian: Kothet's more accustomed to working with Daedric Princes than most.

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Previously: Kothet paid a visit to Sheogorath (and Pelagius III) on his way home to his tower.

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34 - Return to the Tower

"Is it true that Tullius is going back to Cyrodiil?" Elisif asked. "I'd heard that the Emperor left orders for his recall just before that unfortunate incident on the ship."

"We can't say for sure," I replied, "The assassin waited until we'd left, but we had discussed that idea with him, so I know that was his intention. Perhaps the murder was an attempt to prevent it?"

"I hadn't thought of it that way. But I doubt it. Tullius isn't that kind of man."

"Elenwen, however," I suggested.

"Good point. She had her plans disrupted enough when Ulfric went mad and attacked you. I wouldn't put anything past her. And the way the assassin is supposed to have killed him makes me think that even more."

"Oh, how was that?"

"I can't say that in public. We should discuss this in my chambers."

---

It appeared that the story was making its rounds among the nobles, and was probably leaking down to their servants, too. It was just too good not to be told, and of course, it would always be a question of "don't tell anyone else, but ..." which ensured that it would spread like wildfire.

"So we know the assassin was a woman, at least," I mused. "Did your informants have any other details?"

"Well, the general conjecture is that she might be either a Nord or an Imperial. That's just going by the late Emperor's apparent preferences. And the bigger, the more poison, the theory goes, which supports it being a Nord." Elisif glanced down at herself and added "I hope nobody thinks it was me."

"If they do, we'll blame everything on Sheogorath," I told her. "The problems in the Pelagius Wing were all his doing. It's a wonder you didn't come under his influence yourself."

Elisif got the point immediately. "So things can get back to normal around the Blue Palace on all fronts? No more Tullius hovering around, no more Madgod in the Pelagius Wing."

"And Torygg avenged, if you care to look at it that way," Zahra reminded her. "A bit of closure settles the mind, doesn't it?"

"I can attest to the departure of Sheogorath, if anyone questions it. They should believe the Dragonborn, especially as I'm daedra myself. If you need me to add anything about yourself, we can work that out."

"I'm sure Sybille will ask you about that. Falk and Bryling are part of the charade already, so I'll fill them in on the latest developments. We'll need to figure out whether I make an sudden or gradual recovery. We have both options, and it will depend on what we think the people expect.

"I think they've got to like the crazy woman running the show, so perhaps I'll have an excuse for an occasional relapse whenever I want to let my hair down a bit. That could be fun."

---

As expected, we arrived back at our tower long before we anticipated G'wen arriving. We had time to sit on the platform on the top of the tower, and watch dragons fly past on their way to ... whatever they were doing.

"Do they hunt? And if they do, what do they hunt?" Zahra asked.

"I'm not sure. I think they enjoy chasing the goats on the mountains, but whether that's just for the sport, or because they're hungry, I don't know. Mostly, at least I believe so, they're looking for their place in this world. They were all raised by Alduin just recently, with a few exceptions, and it all must have changed a lot since they were here last."

"A few exceptions? Who, other than Paarthurnax?"

"We only know that he waited for Alduin's return at the Throat of the World. Some of those we encountered at Skuldhavn may have been waiting there. Most, of course, were buried here in Skyrim."

We sat and just watched the landscape for a bit longer. And then, "When do you think G'wen will show up?"

"When she's ready," I replied. "And I think she will. After all, she did report back as we'd planned, or we wouldn't have heard all the stories about the Emperor's demise."

"So when she's ready to deal with us, you mean?"

I must have looked puzzled, because Zahra continued. "Well, we did last see her in rather intimate circumstances, and she's probably wondering if we do that all the time."

"We do, but I see what you mean. We haven't involved anyone else before."

"Right, and she hardly knows us. And even if she knows anything about Dremora, we aren't exactly typical."

"So she has no idea what to expect. Not that she did last time, either, but you know what I mean." I was beginning to understand what Zahra meant, too.

"Yes, last time she knew she'd run into something she hadn't anticipated, and had to make the best of the circumstances. The sort of thing an assassin expects, especially with a contract like that. She'd prepared for it as well as she could, and I think she handled it all rather well. So she's going to be as prepared as she can be for this time, too. Which is why I'm wondering what she expects. She knows that Titus won't be here, to turn to for guidance."

"If she thinks it all out logically, she'll probably suddenly appear stark naked again, and hope it all goes the same as last time," I suggested. "G'wen, if you're listening ..."

"Listening to what?" asked the voice coming up the stairs behind us. "The door wasn't locked, so I came looking for you. Oh wow! What a great view you have from up here! I'm surprised you didn't see me coming."

I told G'wen about watching the dragons, and as I said that, another soared along the valley, roaring his challenge to any other that might be near.

"I imagine you were travelling a bit more quietly than they do, too," Zahra remarked. "We didn't hear you on the stairs, either, until you spoke."

"Walking silently is a habit now," she admitted, "and I do tend to walk in the shadows, without thinking about it. Maybe I shouldn't be too surprised you didn't see me."

"Certainly not as surprised as you were last time, when we could see you," Zahra reminded her.

"Yes, I'd meaning to ask. How did you know to cast that spell of yours? Did I do something to tip you off? After Kothet blocking my arrow earlier, I was being extra-careful not to give myself away. It's uncanny."

"No, it was just dumb luck," we admitted. "Nothing you did."

"And just as uncanny was the way Titus took to me. I've used sex to get out of awkward situations before, but that was something different."

"Well that probably was something you did. And it's likely just to be the way you do things, like walking quietly in the shadows. Whatever, it was, he liked it."

I had to add. "And if the Emperor and a couple of dremora wasn't 'different', I'd want to hear what else you've been up to!"

G'wen giggled. "We're all just people when we're doing that." Then she thought a bit and added "But it did make it a bit harder to know how and when to do anything. I was really glad when you started it all off for me."

Since the sun was setting, and we only had one bed, Zahra invited G'wen to join us. She knew where this was leading, and I think she wanted that as much as I did.