———————————————
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.
———————————————
previous day
4-202-01-12 05:20
Vacant House 8-3, Sunhold, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion
We walk around separately this morning. I see a couple of women wearing really beautiful clothes, and in the house of a man Sindil I succeed in having a longer conversation with his wife Valante. She tells me she belongs to a group known as The Healers which used to be forbidden a long time ago but no longer is and I could join if I wanted to. I reply I'd love to, and Valante teaches me two new spells, one for healing diseases on yourself and one on others. Now I won't need Cure Disease potions anymore.
[Just to remind you: the Healing spell cures only injuries. Diseases are cured by taking a Cure Disease potion or by praying at shrines to deities. To the best of my knowledge, disease-curing spells are unknown in Skyrim.]
As my first assignment, Valante asks me to travel to a place called Corgrad that is between Ebon and Cloudrest. A woman named Dothiel has asked The Healers to help her sick goat. Um, okay. It's not quite what I had in mind, but I understand they may be a little cautious with letting a new member loose on sick people.
A little after 8, the girls and I head west under the caressing rays of the warm morning sun. (Doesn't it ever rain in Summerset?)
We're going to find that alchemist whom Quillinda wanted contacted. He should be in a place called Drusil's Grotto.
We have almost reached our destination, at least judging by the map, when we discover a dungeon called Kalatar. It consists of many undergound waterways.
Having waded through those, we end up in a system of wooden staircases. We reach a place where an elven man called Natryn is sitting. He politely answers our greeting, but he's clearly not in the mood for chatting. I can't imagine what he's doing here, but I'm not going to beat the information out of him. We just go back, through all that water.
Drusil's Grotto is but a stone's throw away (or maybe two or three). Now, that is a weird place.
The first person (although I'm not sure of the correctness of that term) we meet is a man whose face is covered with what looks almost like bright red flames. I'd like to think their moving is a trick of the light. Also he has ears like an elf and horns similar to the Argonians'. He is hacking away at an ore vein with his pickaxe.
As I look at him, utterly baffled, Jenassa whispers to me he's a dremora, that is an earthly manifestation of a daedra.
I've heard about the dremoras. From what I understand, they are created when a daedra wants to achieve something in the material world, for which he needs to be in the human(oid) shape. The dremora can be killed like humans, but that won't damage the daedra whom they represent, simply because it's impossible for us mortals to damage a daedra. The daedras are not physical creatures and therefore they can't be physically damaged. Well, this is the best I can explain. Let's proceed and find the alchemist.
The passages lead to a cavern that has a platform on one side, on which stands one of those spriggan-shaped atronachs. I observe it carefully, but it shows no signs of aggression, so we just walk on and step onto the platform to our left. At a desk sits a man who looks like he might well be the boss around here.
Yes, his name is Drusil. He knows Quillinda and asks us to tell her he's sorry but he can't leave his research here behind. I ask him what is that research and he says he has invented a way of getting Spriggan Sap (an alchemy ingredient) by capturing a spriggan and covering her with a coat of substance that renders her immovable, and yet alive and healthy indefinitely. It sounds horribly cruel, but Drusil says spriggans are nasty creatures and why feel sorry for them.
As to that scary guy with the pickaxe, Drusil explains that after something magical happened around here in the past, some dremoras were left behind in the material plane for a reason he doesn't know, and they looked really lost, and that man named François we saw seemed fascinated with ore veins, so Drusil gave him a pickaxe and put him to work. François seems very happy having found himself a purpose as a substitute for the one he had lost.
That's Drusil.
Um, right. I go to check out that creature on the other platform. Yes, it's a spriggan, not an atronach. And... it's hard for me to say it, indeed I wish I could unsee it, but she has a metal tap built into her body, about where the navel would be if she were human. I suppose if you'd turn the tap, Spriggan Sap would flow out of her. She's completely immovable and, well, can't talk, as I presume spriggans generally can't.
I make sure we're out of the earshot of Drusil and the three other alchemists working with him. I ask the girls if we should kill Drusil. What he's doing is just too repulsive if you ask me. No alchemical interests can justify reducing a sentient being into such a state as they have done with that poor spriggan. Lydia and Jordis agree with me, Jenassa doesn't care one way or another. Actually, I had already made my decision, I merely wanted to bounce my thoughts off someone, or how did the saying go? We're going to kill the four alchemists to make sure the knowledge of their heinous research won't spread, and we'll also put the spriggan our of her misery and pray forgiveness on behalf of the humankind the next time we'll get near a suitable shrine. (Yes, I know Drusil is an elf and not a human, but that's not the point. Don't confuse me.)
I'm not sure what we ought to do about that red-faced demon. On the one hand, a dremora has no business existing in our world. On the other hand, he doesn't seem to be doing any harm to anyone. So I guess we'll limit the bloodshed, so to speak. If the daedras want to harm people, they can always create new dremoras, so François's death would hardly make any difference. (A properly demonic name he's got. It can't even be written without using a letter that doesn't exist in the human language!)
So, girls, spread out inconspicuously and be ready to grab your bows at my command.
The execution goes like clockwork. Those alchemists are no fighters.
I can't kill the spriggan, though. That magical substance she's been covered with defends her from arrows. So I have to beg Bardslayer to help me put her to death.
When we pass François on our way to the exit, he continues his work unperturbedly and we leave him to it.
It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I've been playing with the thought of exploring the southwestern corner of Summerset, but now I decide we'll go to Holly Falls that is to the northeast from here. That'll be the settlement the ruler of Sunhold fears something bad may have happened to.
Holly Falls turns out to be a imposing system of high stone structures.
As we get closer, though, we can see it's all in ruins. Descending cautiously onto the roofs from the hills around, we can't detect any signs of life.
Still with great caution, I approach a row of arches in a wall, behind which there appears to be a vertical drop into the remains of a large hall or something. I look carefully over the edge... and there they are. A group of hostile mages who notice me instantly.
I step back quickly. We haven't much to fear, because here we aren't even in their line of sight and there doesn't seem to be any way for them to climb up here. But obviously we will have to get to them somehow. I draw my bow and try to sneak to a good shooting position, but there happens to be a low barrier and I can't climb onto it with my bow drawn, so I put the bow away and step onto the barrier and draw my bow again and the next moment I realize I'm already falling down on the other side. I succeed in landing softly like a cat without getting hurt, but I no longer have any advantage over those fire mages, four or five of them, I think. So I just start shooting. My followers are still on high ground, luckily, and with the help of an occasional health potion we come out victorious.
Those are weird mages called the Beheaded . They actually look as if their heads had been chopped off and sewn back on. Their leader is carrying a key that, as we find out, opens a nearby door to the Ruined Chapel. It's indeed a very ruined small-temple-style room filled with incredible amounts of dust. A trapdoor leads to a dungeon named Holly Falls Neling. There we meet an awesomely mighty-looking Orc man Khal gro-Shun. He says he's just guarding the entrance, and urges us to go and talk to their leader Ocaro in the biggest one among the houses over there. The few passersby tell us the same thing, so we go and find the path to that house.
The poor goats, how they have to live!
Ocaro tells us the ground gave way and swallowed up the houses and the chapel. Now that the evil mages outside have been eliminated, they could, in principle, leave this place, except that they have nowhere to go. He instructs me to return to Sunhold and ask Lord Ish to find some shelter above ground for them.
We try to strike up a conversation with some other people, but they all just beg us to help them and not stand around and chat. I can't even make Khal interested in any, er, personal interaction. So we just have to leave.
We exit the chapel and, after some searching, find a place where we can climb up the ruins and eventually reach the road east of them. It's dark already (strong moonlight, though). Ebon and Sunhold are at about equal distance, but I don't want to return to the south. In addition to the Holly Falls quest, we've also several things to do in the northern part of Summerset. Apart from which, I'm generally interested in finding out what's between here and Ebon.
We get attacked by a few animals here and there, as well as discover a citadel with someone hostile inside whom we leave alone for the time being. Approaching Ebon, I recognize the place where I was almost killed by those horrible mages when we were traveling to the west from Shimmerene. Maybe you remember, I mentioned we saw two mysterious glowing creatures up on a hill I got curious about, which was the reason I dropped my guard and allowed those mages to take me by surprise. Now, I'm quite surprised seeing them again in the same place. Upon closer look, it makes sense, because they're not alive. They're statues:
Evidently, they didn't leave at all last time, I simply assumed they had left, because we weren't seeing them from the place where we finally succeeded in killing the evil mages.
I've no idea what they are, but they're so amazing. They emanate a strange peacefulness and clarity.
I'm having a feeling I could stand here and look at them forever, but when I see Jenassa fidgeting impatiently, I come out of my trance and give the girls the sign to move on.
Shortly before midnight, we cross the bridge east of Ebon. Without further ado, we go to sleep in our house. We're utterly exhausted, the four of us.
next awakening
return to the table of contents
