———————————————
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
4-202-01-31 09:44
Lillandril Palace Quarters, Lillandril, Summerset, Aldmeri Dominion
We spend the morning, or what's left of it, on shopping and socializing.
Around noon, we set off for Mandas, a place southwest of Ebon where we are supposed to find an ingredient for Master Bolwing of Shimmerene. Instead of the direct off-road route, I decide we'll travel by the road that goes south and follows the coast, eventually reaching Mandas by a slight detour.
The orange arrow shows the route by which we arrived yesterday.
Shortly after the intersection from which one road goes to the east, towards Corgrad and Ebon, we discover a small rocky island on which is a Gadyni Cave. I decide to check it out, just out of curiosity. There are a few walking skeletons in a small but very deep cave. It's possible to descend a part of the way along rock ledges, but then we have to jump down and end up in the bottom partly under water without a way forward. I dive into the water. Most of it is too shallow even for swimming, and there are no underwater passages to be found. I can sense another undead near us, but no way to get there. If it wasn't for Bardslayer who helps us out, we would die here in this miserable dark waterhole. It was inexcusably stupid of me to climb down like this without knowing how to get back up.
A little way to the south, we discover a fortress called Sea Keep.
It has a large territory. One of the courtyards is full of tents. There's but one person in the courtyard and that's a thalmor soldier. He's not hostile, but I still think we'd better leave.
Further south where the road is already turning east, following the coastline, two humanoid creatures are fighting. One is clearly a monster, the other one might well be human. I shoot the undead. Now the other one becomes hostile and attacks us. He's a mage. I can see him put up a ward. There are maybe 40–50 meters between us and he moves really fast, but we get him eventually. When we approach to loot his corpse, it turns out he was a Thalmor Wizard . What does this mean? Has the thalmor organization caught up with us and we should leave Summerset while we can?
We discuss it and decide to go on as normal. This could have been a misunderstanding, and no matter how hot things may get, I'm pretty confident we'll be able to run to Shimmerene and use the spell to get to Winterhold.
We proceed cautiously, but there are no further incidents. In the southeastern end of the peninsula, quite near to where Mandas is supposed to be, is a house called White Guard. In it live an Imperial man Lucius and a Khajiit woman Tsasala.
From left: Lucius, Jordis, Jenassa, Lydia, Tsasala.
They are friendly, but not talkative. I feel I like that couple very much, and I'd like to sit with them and get to know them better. Regrettably, they seem to mistrust groups of four heavily armed strangers, so we have no choice but to move on.
Mandas is a small island, or more precisely a huge rock in the water. On the eastern side is a small patch of sand and a cave opening. We swim over and enter the cave, sneaking slowly and cautiously.
I sense an undead. Could be a vampire. Next to it is a non-hostile humanoid. We sneak closer. The vampire senses us too. I notice another enemy approaching from a passage at the farther end of the cave. I kill the vampire who is nearer, and the other one falls down too. Must have been an atronach who died when its master did.
The one I shot is a Volkihar Vampire. Gods! Volkihar is a bad place. It's said to be a vampire stronghold on an island north of Haafingar, but I thought it was just the kind of story people like to make up to frighten other people. Now I seem to have proof that it really exists.
We leave the non-hostile standing there and explore the rest of the dungeon, killing a few more vampires.
They're not strong, but if they're connected to Volkihar, then it may be a sign of something very serious. Or not. We find nothing written, so we have no way of finding out what's been going on here. But we do find that Blood Moss thing for Bolwing.
Oh, the non-hostile one! Of course. We go back to where it was. It's a naked High Elf woman in a locked cage. She is utterly confused. She can tell us neither what her name is nor what she's doing here. She has normal elven eyes, meaning she's not a vampire. Nearby is the corpse of a male High Elf. And that's all there is to see in this location. A part of one passage is under water, but that's barely waist-deep. Nothing underwater.
As we don't seem to be able to do anything for that unfortunate woman, we just unlock her cage, leave her some clothes and go back out. She'll find the exit when she's ready to leave.
Alinor is to our southeast, across the bay. There are no houses or such in sight, so we can strip naked and swim across without having to fear being seen. We come to land in the cover of some sanddunes and a high rock, and get dressed.
Alinor is quite near, and it's the bizarrest sight yet.
The giant mushrooms are not all that spectacular compared to Tel Mithryn, but half a dozen floating islands totally make us wonder if we're even awake.
West of the city is a small harbor:
Between the harbor and the city proper is a one-storey wooden house. It turns out to be the sweets shop of a curious-looking Khajiit woman Dahnashi. She lives in the basement of her shop. Dahnashi must belong to some different tribe of Khajiits, because she has the kind of slit-like eyes which I've never seen before. But I don't want to start enquiring her about it now, because it's already evening and maybe we shouldn't bother Queen Marawyn's associate Andratha at too late an hour.
So I ask Dahnashi if she knows anyone of that name. She says it's a witch who lives in a tower south of the harbor. However, we mustn't go there, because Andratha is overly paranoid. She has put spell on the steep stairs that won't let anyone climb up without slipping and falling at some point – which would very likely mean death.
After all those tilted columns we've been seeing in Summerset, Andratha's tower (in the background in the picture below) is almost grotesquely straight.
Inside is an extremely high room with staircases against the walls. The sorceress's quarters are evidently on top. The stairs don't look too bad, but Bardslayer floats me up, just to be on the safe side.
Indeed I reach Andratha's living quarters. She doesn't object to my visit, but keeps a ward around her all the time.
After I've given her the queen's message, she tells me she is forging souls, refuses to explain what the hell it's supposed to mean, and asks me to bring her some Elf Cup Caps. She says they grow near the village of Graddun Spring on the northern coast. When I ask what Elf Cup Cap is, she says somewhat annoyedly it's a red mushroom.
She looks eager to return to her work, whatever that may be, so I say goodbye and leave. Since I have little doubt that the stairs will be just as deadly walking downwards as upwards, I let Bardslayer float me down gently.
As I exit the tower with my followers, we find that night has fallen.
Only now do I realize I have no idea where we can sleep in this city.
We return to the sweets shop, but Dahnashi has already closed for the night. So we just enter the city by the nearest gate.
Alinor seems to consist of pyramid-shaped buildings like the ones we saw in Cloudrest:
They all turn out to be private homes which I think would be impolite to visit at such late hour. We have no general idea of the city's layout and we don't know if it even has an inn. I mean, we can't assume things we'd take for granted in Skyrim.
A city guard tells us there is no inn, but we may be given shelter at the temple. He shows us how to get there. It's not easy. The temple is on one of the floating islands. In order to reach it, you have to use one of the many teleportation orbs in a small stone building in the middle of the city. The orbs bear no markings whatsoever. You just have to know which is which. So I activate the one pointed out by the helpful guard and we are indeed teleported to an island high in the air. Right in front of us we see the entrance of a large temple.
The priestess is a little bit grumpy, but we can indeed stay the night here for a donation of 200 septims per person.
next awakening
return to the table of contents
