Always Lost, Always Hopeful (82) Call Me, Restless Draugr

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SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
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previous day






4-201-11-07 06:19
Hall of Attainment, Winterhold, Winterhold, Skyrim


It's a lovely if northerly harsh morning. After a nice warm bath at the inn with the girls, I feel awesome. I can see that so does Jenassa. She doesn't look like she's going to spill her heart, but Lydia and Jordis waste no time telling me all about it. Jenassa spent the night with the wizard Nelacar. I'm not surprised. When we were walking around in the College together yesterday, I could notice that she was really hitting it off with the female elven students. They seemed to have a lot to talk about. Small wonder she hit it off even better with a male High Elf wizard. And maybe he reminds her of Cyrelas. At any rate, I'm only happy for her. She might even have good influence on him.

Today, I intend us to travel westwards, to a place called Hob's Fall Cave where we might find that valuable artifact, Helm of Winterhold  , for the jarl. It's located halfway between Winterhold and Dånstar. I don't know about roads, but surely we can reach it somehow.

Halfway between Winterhold and Hob's Fall Cave, in turn, will be Saarthal, the ruin Master Tolfdir said he wanted to explore with us the students. As it's so conveniently on our path, I'll have a look at it. Of course, I'll take my followers along unless Tolfdir should strictly forbid it. They can use a little excitement and I can use some extra protection.

Before we can leave, though, Winterhold is being attacked by a dragon (sorry about my bow being right in the middle of the picture):

He seems to be angry with someone. Just look at that face!
Coming out of his mouth is probably a shockwave.
From what I understand, there are three kinds of dragons: fire, frost and shock.
For some reason, the fire dragons are the ones most told about in the folklore.

It's so early in the morning that there are almost no people on the streets yet. Assisted by two or three town guards, we kill the dragon without much difficulty, except that he rises up into the air one more time when he's supposed to be already dead. That's really weird. Maybe there's some magical residue from the College's activities? He falls down again in a few seconds, though, and he's dead all right, and I get my dragonsoul.

Now we can finally get going. There's heavy snowfall further west.

We catch up with the other students and Tolfdir shortly before Saarthal. Where have you been all this time, guys? Why didn't I see you in the town last night? Partying without me, were you? That's not nice.

The Khajiit man J'zargo I told you about turns out to be a big-headed poser. The Nord Onmund seems quite likeable, although it's too cold for a lengthy conversation.

We descend the impressive system of wooden walkways they've built here, at the very bottom of which is the entrance to the Saarthal excavation site. If you look carefully, you can see a part of the door (behind the barrel and the table):

After last words of warning from Tolfdir, we hurry inside. If I'm understanding this correctly, Saarthal is the ruin of the oldest Nord settlement in history.

Unsurprisingly, they have no heating installed here, but at least there's no snowfall. Now Tolfdir assigns individual tasks to each of us.

I am to go to Tolfdir's helper Arniel Gane working nearby and ask if he needs any assistance. Arniel sends me to look around in nearby passages and bring him any magical artifacts I can find. I set to work. I find a few magic rings lying about here and there. Then I notice an amulet in a little hole in a wall (or possibly a massive door). I pick it up and suddenly there's loud clanking. I realize that several gratings have dropped down in nearby passages and I'm trapped here.

I'm not really afraid. I'm sure my followers will go and tell Tolfdir and he'll figure out something.

Sooner than I thought, our teacher appears on the other side of a grating and asks me what that racket was. I tell him I don't know – I took an amulet off a wall and now I can't get out. He suggests I try wearing the amulet. I put it on. I know now it's called Saarthal Amulet , but I can't sense what its effect would be. Tolfdir instructs me to use a spell on that wall I took it from. I choose Sparks – the simplest shock spell. After I've bombarded that wall or door with it for a couple of seconds, it opens, revealing a passage. It leads into a medium-sized chamber with metal things on three of the four walls that look like empty draugr cupboards.

Soon my followers come running, followed by Tolfdir who evidently found a way to remove those gratings.

Tolfdir keeps saying how it's all so exciting, yet the tone of his voice remains completely calm. He urges us to be on our guard all the time, as he has no idea what might await us here. While he examines the room, I stand there a little lost, because I already looked everywhere before Tolfdir arrived, and there's decidedly nothing here. Suddenly things go kind of foggy in front of my eyes. Colors disappear and everything turns bluishgray-and-white. A quite handsome man in a hooded robe that's a couple sizes too large for him appears. He tells me I have set something in motion and now the world may go under or not, depending on my future actions. He represents an organization called the Psijic Order which believes in me (his words, not mine) and will be watching me.

That's Jenassa. She is not seeing him.

He vanishes before I get a chance to say that lots of people are watching me every day. It's just as well, because he looked so awfully serious he might not have appreciated my witticism.

The light turns back to normal. I learn that the others didn't see or hear our conversation. They just felt something strange. I tell Tolfdir what happened. He is very surprised and mildly skeptical. He knows very well what the Psijic Order is and informs me they disappeared more than 100 years ago along with the island on which they were residing. No one has heard of them since. He suggests we continue exploring this place.

While Tolfdir somehow finds a way forward, I'm busy discussing my recent experience with the girls. I must confess that mysterious man scared the wits out of me when he said I had done something to set in motion some extremely fatal events. After a little reflection, though, we come to the realization that it can't be that serious. If that Psijic Order were as powerful as they pretend to be, they could surely handle that disaster without me, or if they really needed my help (for example, because I'm born with the Dragonborn gift and they are not), they could force me to cooperate. And if they're really very mighty but prefer to watch from the sidelines, then the situation can't be too serious to begin with.

I think you know me well enough by now to know that I can't be impressed with cheap dramatics. That psijic emissary Nerien was so different from Tolfdir. Admittedly, our teacher is very old and probably not too compassionate. But he's all like: "All right, this is the situation. Not let's see what we can do." He looks like nothing could bring him out of balance. And near him, I feel like there's nothing in the world we couldn't handle.

That said, I wouldn't mind taking a closer look at Nerien someday and discuss some more mundane topics. For now, though, I'll have to settle for walking across the dungeons of Saarthal and fighting draugrs every now and then, while Tolfdir wanders off occasionally and then joins up with us again.

I'm glad at least one of us is having fun.

Some draugrs, as you may remember, cast something similar to dragon shouts at you. They make a sound like a very short low-pitched boom that feels like it could shatter your eardrums, and it makes you lose your balance for a few seconds or minutes, during which time you are defenseless. It's the scariest of all magic effects. The pain caused by magical flames doesn't come even close. That's why I take Resist Shock  potions when fighting draugrs, but they don't give you absolute protection. To cut the long story short: today one Draugr Deathlord succeeds in hurling me for several meters with my face against a wall. I can taste blood in my mouth and worry if my nose is broken. I know healing spells can cure even broken teeth, but still we women can't help being apprehensive of any damage to our faces. I'm sure you understand. If you have, say, a scar on your butt, very few people will ever see it, but your face is something of a completely different scope.

You'll be glad to hear I end up fine.

I don't know why one type of draugrs is referred to as "restless", but when I loot their corpses,
I often start singing to myself "Call me, restless draugr, to the end..." My followers find it amusing.
They say the tune is completely unknown to them. Must be an old song I heard in my childhood.
I have large bits of the melody in my head, but no more lyrics.
I wish I could remember the words, so I could sing it properly.

Further down the passages, I notice on the floor a somewhat unusual kind of a trap. It's not a rune, it's a net of very thin glowing purple lines. For some reason, I imagine that it would cause a sensation like being stuck by a thousand needles all over, making you shake in convulsions for a second or two. I feel curious to find out. I try to touch the trap and back off quickly. Naturally, it's hopeless. I feel exactly that kind of sharp stingy energy moving up my nerves and making me jump. I've instantly lost almost a half of my health. Fortunately, the trap has disappeared after one use. I heal myself and we walk on. A little later, I see another such trap. Unfortunately, it can't be evaded as it blocks the whole width of a narrow passage. So I have to take a deep breath and submit myself to that jolt of nerve shake again, in order to spare my followers the same.

Then we end up at a grating-door openable with a lever that has adjustable switches around it. Another puzzle.

We're greatly amused to notice that behind every switch-pillar, there's the solution on the wall. We're much less amused to learn that when you move one pillar, the one next to it moves as well. It's impossible to move the pillars so that all four would match the images on the walls behind them. Or, well, hardly impossible. One would have to experiment around and write down how each switch affects the others, and then eventually figure out the solution, but I'm decidedly not in the mood for that kind of brainrape right now, so I ask Bardslayer to just take us through the grating.

I always wonder in dungeons why are all those candles burning. I don't think draugrs need light.
Anyway, candles burn out, don't they? Who keeps bringing new candles to a place like this?
My girls are convinced no one does. There has to be some kind of magic that keeps a candle burning forever.

We end up in a very big cavern with something larger than human and basically round glowing in bluish-green or greenish-blue. (Upon in-depth examination, our final judgment is that its lower part is greenish blue and the upper part is bluish green.)

Tolfdir is with us again, and makes no secret of being utterly fascinated by that object which, you guessed it, is unlike anything he's ever seen in his life. Me and my followers walk along the balcony-like edge which is 3–4 meters above the floor and 2–3 meters wide, slowly taking it all in and trying to find some useful loot. Then I see a dark humanoid shape running to a wooden staircase that leads to the balcony on the opposite side of the hall. (Meaning, once it's ascended the stairs, it will be able to run along the balcony and reach me.) I begin shooting arrows into it, but it's taking no damage at all. Tolfdir shouts me to keep it busy while he tries to weaken it. So I keep shooting. Sooner than I would like, the monstrosity is hitting at me with a small axe which doesn't look like much but still hurts. The creature resembles a draugr, is clearly taller than me, and has glowing blue eyes.

I see I'm not taking too heavy damage, so I don't worry. I switch from my bow to the Blade of Woe  in my right hand and the Healing  spell in my left. My magical skills are high enough by now so that I can uphold the Healing  spell quite long like this, and I'm sure Tolfdir will solve the situation in the meantime.

Indeed, after a number of effectless hits from my dagger, I'm relieved to see the creature beginning to take damage very quickly – mainly from my followers nearby – and then it's dead. Its name was Jyrik Gauldurson (son of Gauldur, so by today's standard his patronym would be Gauldursson).

I pick up a Gauldur Amulet Fragment  from him, as well as a note from someone stating that Jyrik was magically imprisoned here for his heinous crimes. I hurry to heal myself and we rush down to join Tolfdir admiring the thing  that has now taken a regular round shape and is floating over a glowing platform. From up close, I'd say the thing is definitely more blue than green, although of course I respect your right to stuff your own opinion. Tolfdir wants to say something, but I beg him to wait until the girls and I have taken some pictures of ourselves in front of it.

From left, in case you need your memory refreshed: Lydia, Laura, Jordis, Jenassa.

Yours truly, stunned by this magnificent play of light and color.

When we're done, Tolfdir tells us that the Arch-Mage needs to be informed about our find without delay. He doesn't dare leave it unattended, so would I and my followers please hurry back to Winterhold and inform Savos Aren?

Of course. It'll be our pleasure.

On our way out, we pass by a word wall. I get a shout that's supposed to freeze my opponent solid. Ice Form. Sounds cool. I'm curious to try it on someone.

However, when we've gotten outside, I'm disappointed to see that it's pitch dark and snowing heavily. I had actually planned on traveling to the west and getting that ritual helm before returning to Winterhold. Under the current circumstances, I think we might be able to find a way back to the town if we're very careful, but to go looking for an unknown location in a rather mountainous area is decidedly not a good idea, not even with my lighting ring.

I wonder if there's a place here where we can sleep... No, it's half past eight in the evening, so after 7 hours of sleep we'd still be in complete darkness. Guess we'll have to travel eastwards after all. That'll give us an opportunity to sleep in warm soft beds and coincidentally do a good deed to the College. Not to mention that in my current state I would really appreciate a bath in the morning.

The distance is relatively small and the terrain is more or less familiar, so I think I can even do without the lighting ring. Halfway to Winterhold, I realize I can't.

When we arrive in Winterhold, it's not all that awfully late yet, so I decide I'll report to the Arch-Mage right away. I was headed for the College anyway. After a hasty wash, I wish my followers a jolly evening at the inn and advise them mockingly to watch out for Nelacar's experiments.

The Arch-Mage has already retired to his living quarters, but when I say I have an urgent message from Tolfdir, I'm allowed in. The place looks most impressive, but I'll describe it to you some other time.

The Arch-Mage is not very excited about Tolfdir's discovery, but he promises sighingly to go and take a look. He also instructs me to ask the librarian Urag if he has any literature on floating green-blue shining spheres in old Nordic ruins. I'll be only too glad to oblige. I might see Ertzebet in the library.

Indeed, she is there and she's as breathtaking as ever. I wonder if she's aware how I feel about her. I'm sure she's bound to sense it sooner or later. As for Urag, he informs me he used to have a book that might contain something about what I'm looking for, but unfortunately it's been stolen by a rogue mage Orthorn who left the College not empty-handed. Urag gives me the directions to the place where the man was probably headed.

Now it's past 11 in the evening and I've more than earned a good night's sleep. Well, not quite. As I'm about to leave the library, the thalmor Ancano stops me and asks me if we found something in Saarthal. He is civil enough and I say we did, adding innocently that I've already reported to the Arch-Mage. Fortunately, Ancano leaves it at that for the time being.

Now I can go to my dorm room and retire for the night.



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