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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
4-202-05-15 09:16
Black-Briar Manor, Riften, The Rift, Skyrim
Madesi wants me to suck. Oh well, I knew it would happen sooner or later. Surely it can't be as bad as Khajiit's.
No, it isn't. But it's very unusual and I'm not too eager to do it again anytime soon.
We have a wash together and then I meet up with the girls to do some shopping.
I'm delighted to see my friends look healthy and joyful. I don't want to waste too much time in Riften today, though. At half past 11, we head west, towards Largashbur, Sunguard City, Ivarsted and Nimalten. Just to see what's new and such. From there, we'll proceed north, possibly spend the night in privacy at Valtheim, and then return to Hviterun to re-hire Jenassa as replacement for Ghorbash.
Before we reach Largashbur, I notice a path going south. I've no idea where it would lead, but I feel adventurous and I think we can quickly check it out.
We run across an evil mage fighting a flame atronach. I succeed in getting a close-up of the latter before it's completely burned:
The path turns before reaching the high mountains and takes us slightly uphill to a Crystaldrift Cave. It's relatively small and has a couple of bears and a troll living inside.
We exit and proceed along the path, moving farther away from our original course, into the mountains. We pass by a Dragon Burial Mound I think we've seen before, and reach a narrow valley. In its other end up the mountain is a citadel. The weather has gotten foggy.
We climb higher and reach snowy mountainslopes. We descend again and find the ruins of a burned-down house. That citadel is quite near now. A snowfall begins when we reach it, and then ends almost before it has started. The place is called Stendarr's Beacon and it's occupied by a few virrs.
From here we have a good view across the valley. There's another mountain, higher than this one.
On its top is that ancient Nordic ruin we saw ages ago from that dragon place further west. Today, we'll check it out since we're so near already.
We descend into the valley, climb up the other mountain, then up the outer fortifications and after some looking around (I fall down once, from a walkway a few meters high)
Fine, let's take a look.
The entrance is nearby.
No, I'm not wearing bunny ears. It's the carving on the door. See the next picture.
What? Valmir is not coming in with us? Is he possibly a relative of Captain Adius of Bruma? Well, never mind. I motion my followers to come along and enter by the door.
This is a very classical draugr dungeon. It's got everything – massive stone bridges crossing huge robust stone halls, narrowish passages with mummies on shelves, massive metal grating doors with switches hidden somewhere else, and even a puzzle door. But all that comes later. Right now we're having magic cast at us by quite human-looking ghosts.
We find some notes that inform us that the dragon priests under siege here poisoned themselves and their children rather than die fighting or risk imprisonment. (How horrible! The dragon priests had children!!!)
We find a big dormitory. Could we... no, there's a skeleton in almost every bed. Let's move on.
The draugrs are very dangerous and I'm getting the feeling that the more powerful Resist Shock gear I wear, the less it helps. I'm knocked down like a paper screen in a storm by this draugr:
That's yours truly, out of the combat for a while:
I wonder if the gods are trying to tell me something.
After lots of ghosts and draugrs and water and great halls, we reach a door that has three disks which have to be in the correct positions for the door to open. Each disk has 3 positions, so there are 27 variations. I get it right on the 11th try. And then we are attacked by a very horrible mage. He brings me close to death while I shoot half a dozen arrows into him that cause no damage whatsoever. I am sick with worry about the girls. After a long and frustrating fight, we manage to kill him after all and all my followers are alive. Even Ghorbash survived this onslaught! The girls tell me later he actually hid behind them all the time. Now that I stop to think about it, I realize I have noticed earlier (but been reluctant to acknowledge) that Ghorbash has been really clumsy with both a bow and a staff. Guess we're not going to have that group sex after all.
The man we killed is called Barrin and he has a ghastly green mask. It's the one we need to bring back to Captain Valmir. I can't believe it could have significant military use for the Imperial Army. It must have some kind of a symbolical or ritual meaning.
Nearby is a journal, apparently written by the same Barrin. It tells about his maniacal passion for a mysterious woman named Luma. It has something to do with that ghost girl Tyllia and the masochist creep Fellaqui. It mentions an underwater gate near the Wreck of the Winter War. Was that the one near Windhelm Lighhouse? Never mind. Let's find a way out of here.
Fortunately, there's a door onto the battlements.
Never mind the two draugrs behind Jordis. I revived them earlier to help us fight. It's temporary. They'll die soon for real.
After a little walk, I'm relieved to notice that we are overlooking the same courtyard where we met Valmir. Thanks to out Cushioned boots, we can jump right down without having to go back the way we came.
Captain Valmir is not noticing how we approach behind his back. He is talking to a man in the Stormcloak armor. Valmir tells him the exact same story he told us:
Note that Valmir has changed into the attire of a Stormcloak officer. He must have seen the soldier approaching from afar.
When Valmis sees us, he says: "Hold on, I can explain."
The overwhelmingly screamingest deceit indicator is, of course, "Trust me," but "I can explain," would, I think, get the second place. I invite Valmir to go ahead and explain all the same, and he tells us quite fluently a story that is obvious bullshit. In the meantime, the Stormcloak has realized Valmir has been sending adventurers after adventurers into that dungeon. He gets so furious that he stabs Valmir to death before I can stop him. I scold him, but there's no way to undo what he did, as I can use the Ritual Stone power only once in 24 hours. We have to settle for searching Valmir.
Unfortunately, there's not the slightest indication as to the author of that message. Maybe we'll go to Labyrinthian to search for him someday, maybe not.
The, um, blade-happy Stormcloak takes his leave. It's morning already, so we're going to have some sleep in Valmir's tent. I just go quickly through our loot. It's mostly metal junk, but there's also a strange device, basically a rectangular plate made of brown-greenish metal. When I grab it with both hands and look at it closely, I realize it consists of two halves and can be opened like this:
Nirnling? Is that a name? No, the girls tell me, it means an inhabitant of the planet Nirn.
Does that mean that that Cuomac Kvazumh person is not from our planet? Whatever. What does he mean by "Masser"? Fort Masser? Or does it refer to a time? A day where the bigger moon Masser is full?? My followers are as clueless as I am. Too bad Jenassa isn't here. I stare at the words "indicated location", wondering where it could be. When you give someone a categorical order, it's probably important to you, so you should make sure the order is clear. But nothing in the text seems to contain a clue as to the place where I'm ordered to go.
I turn the metal plate over to check out the other side. Now there's suddenly a map there, showing an island north of Dånstar. It disappears when I close the device and reappears when I open it.
Well, whoever Cuomac Kvazumh may be, I don't think he can know when and by whom this thing has been opened. Nevertheless, how could I possibly ignore such assertiveness? I'll have to at least take a look at the giver of that order. In due time. Right now, we have to go to sleep before we fall over.
next awakening
