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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
4-202-04-11 04:24
Black-Briar Lodge, The Rift, Skyrim
It's still dark, but we set out to the west all the same.
It's too early to wake people up at the Riften Stables, but I leave word with the gate guards concerning the horse.
We run past the farm that is southwest of Riften and reach Lake Honrich.
Just as we arrive at Heartwood Mill, it begins to get light. We criss-cross the surroundings, but there is nothing unusual there. Maybe it's on the island east of here or even on the northern bank?
We cross the bridge that leads east, and instead of following the path to the fortress, turn left and walk northwards along the coast. I look back towards the sawmill and notice huge Apocrypha-like tentacles which have emerged from the water all of a sudden. They are golden-black in the early morning sunlight.
A couple of seconds later, they are gone. All I'm seeing is clear lakewater. Am I going insane? I turn to Lydia who is standing next to me. I open my mouth to ask if she saw anything. Then the world goes black.
I come to in a near-dark cave with a stone floor, looking at a staircase that leads up to a Dwemer-style door.
My followers are standing right behind me. They look all right and maybe even a little amused. Guess we just stumbled upon another adventure. Well, what else can you expect when you roam about a peaceful lakeshore on a nice sunny morning? ;-)
Passing through that door, we end up in a cavern where wooden walkways run above enormous depths. Imagine Arkngthamz, but twenty times wider. Luckily, the walkways are wide enough to walk securely. Um... correction: in a few places one has to jump form one walkway to another. [Shudder!]
And the lighting is disgraceful:
This could be an old mine, because there are many ropes and chains hanging from above, and a few of them have buckets attached to them.
Without any idea of the general layout of this place, we just walk ahead. Eventually, we see living creatures across a ravine of maybe 100 or 200 meters wide.
The closest thing they resemble is Falmers. They're clearly visible in eerie green light cast by an unknown source over there, which is why we could easily shoot them dead from here. But I am not going to start shooting at someone unknown out of the blue. So we sneak closer until we reach another small group of such creatures. They're Falmers all right.
The one I'm targeting is not glowing in red, because he was out of range when I cast Sense of Smell and ran closer after that.
He's undoubtedly hostile regardless.
He's undoubtedly hostile regardless.
They sense something alien and begin running back and forth, but they're not spotting us yet. So we start shooting. We also kill the group across the ravine while we're at it, giving our best not to step over the edge and fall down like that one hit by one of our arrows:
Not seeing any way to get to the other side, we just walk forward until we reach three doorways with staircases.
We choose the one that's leading to a place called Waterworks. There's a cave with poison spiders who don't attack us on account of the Spriggan Soap. At the end are some thick Dwemer pipes and such, as well as a big humanoid automaton.
It attacks when we get closer. We kill it and there's no way ahead, so we just return to those three doorways.
Next we enter something called Dwarrowdelf. There's a paved road between rocky hills. As a matter of fact, it does look similar to New South Road, except that there are no houses here, only near-vertical hills on both sides, and an occasional group of Falmers on the road.
By quarter to noon, we see two massive columns, in front of which are a few Falmers and what look like the remains of half a dozen Dwemer automatons. The road seems to either turn or end. In the sky beyond the columns is a strange glow, a bit like a moon, that keeps appearing and disappearing.
Having killed those Falmers, we discover that there's actually a bridge that starts between the columns. Only it ends after 20 or 30 meters.
As I take a step past the columns, something like a very big lamp materializes in the air above the emptiness where the bridge ends. There are some structures in the distance below us.
From this angle, you can see how the bridge just vanishes into blackness:
It looks beautiful over there, or if not beautiful than at least much better lighted than this side. But we can't see a way of getting there.
Well, I'm sure we'll be able to see better from the end of that incomplete bridge. I order my followers to remain on steady ground while I start walking forward along the bridge. To my astonishment, it becomes longer as I proceed. Before I have reached the big lantern-like thing, the bridge has extended all the way to the other side where I can now see structures where there was nothing a minute ago.
Now I give the girls a sign to follow me. Not forgetting to sneak cautiously, we reach the end of the bridge where we detect hostile creatures not very far. From their shouting, it soon becomes evident they're human. We shoot a few and then realize they're fighting someone to our right whom we can't see because of those massive stone structures. So we wait it out, observing our surroundings as well as we can without getting too close to the battle. The hope of reaching a place that is properly lighted has put me in an inspired and optimistic mood.
We watch the combat for a while. Then I get bored and start shooting. Yes, that's me – Laura the Impatient.
We kill the people on the ground level. They turn out to be bandits. Then we sneak carefully up the nearest stairs and hunt down all the others. Spread over a wide area, they include the remaining bandits and their adversaries – Falmers and chauruses.
That's a Falmer archer. Note the freshly killed chaurus on the left.
Around us are Dwemer-style structures, as well as stone walkways and such, above a black abyss. There is not enough light to see its bottom. We walk on. The first sign of life we find is a building called Dwarrowdelf Abandoned Inn.
I open the door as slowly and quietly as I can.
There's a big taproom, not unlike the Silver-Blood Inn in Markarth. Or maybe it looks similar because they're both Dwemer-style buildings. We can see about ten men, and I can sense at least half a dozen more beyond corners and in other rooms. Fortunately, the ones in our line of sight have either their backs turned or are too busy with their drinks and stories and such to notice us.
I know we have to kill them. They wouldn't let us leave any time soon. Don't ask me how I know. Or, well, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. I look at Jenassa for assurance. She is visibly anxious to start shooting. The look on her face is like "What the hell are you waiting for?" That's all I needed. Her instinct is much better at those things. I nod and she shoots first. Half a second later my arrow pierces another man and then Lydia and Jordis join in.
It takes some effort, because we don't have room to maneuver, but we get them all by the end.
Unfortunately, there's nothing valuable to loot whatsoever. We could have just walked past and all these men wouldn't have had to die for nothing.
Oh, by the way, they were all Falmer Servants . This fact is valuable proof that understanding and cooperation between Falmers and humans is possible. Too bad we weren't able to talk to these people, and there's nothing written around here either. As we are to find out soon, all the Falmers still attack us on sight rather than try to communicate or at least to take us prisoner.
For the rest of the afternoon, we explore more and less weird places, some Dwemerish, some mine-ish, some beyond description.
By half past 6 in the evening, we reach a door to The Great Southern Abyss. It's another huge Dwemer-style open space, too dark to see the ceiling, and crawling with Falmers. As you can see in this picture, my radar is currently showing 11 enemies in this direction alone:
We're pretty much with our backs against the door through which we entered 8 minutes ago. To tell you the truth, we're not in any trouble yet, but firstly, there's no knowing how many enemies are yet to turn up, and secondly, I just don't want to kill all those Falmers. It's wrong. This is their home and we don't belong here. That's why I order a retreat.
We return to the Dwarrowdelf Hall of the Dead and the Falmers don't pursue us. Maybe this place is taboo for them? Maybe they don't know there are no corpses here, let alone draugrs. Just great many empty shelves and a modest shrine of Arkay.
Well, whatever. We return to that cavern with the long bridge and the weird beautiful light source and continue to look for a way out. I'm in a foul mood, fed up with this location (it's called Mines of Moria, did I tell you already?) where there's absolutely nothing meaningful to do.
After hours of frustrated ledge-walking and some crazy jumps, we reach another enormous mine called Silverlode.
There's actually some Silver Ore here, as well as a couple of tent camps with Falmers who attack us as soon as they see us.
We spend the night on the bedmats in the Falmers' tents.
next awakening
