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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
4-202-01-04 04:52
Arch-Mage's Quarters, Winterhold, Winterhold, Skyrim
Somehow I wake up too early and don't feel too well. I shake Lydia and Jordis awake and inform them that by the time I'm finished with my bath and breakfast, they are to be ready to leave immediately – together with Jenassa whom they will have found by then.
Actually, I'm quite merciful – I wait in the bath until all my three followers join me. We wash ourselves with Dwemer Soap this morning. It contains a rare oil found only in Dwemer ruins, and it's supposed to confuse Dwemer killing machines, so they won't hold you for hostile. (And it's 20 times more expensive than regular soap, but I won't sell it.) Knowing we'll go to Dwemer ruins today, I want to give it a try.
At the last moment, I remember to return Septimus's book to the library. Now we can leave.
As the sun is rising, we can almost see where we're going in the midst of a snowstorm west of Winterhold. We witness a fascinating fight between two mages, one of whom has conjured a huge frost atronach. We also run past a few trolls without bothering to kill them.
The terrain between here and Alftand is completely unknown to me, so I have no idea which direction to approach our destination from. Apart from which, I still feel grumpy and short-tempered. The point is, I'm not in the mood for wayfinding, which is why I use the
Clairvoyance spell:
Turns out that the direct path is good enough. We find an abandoned camp with stuff in ramshackle wooden shacks as well as a couple of badly decayed corpses.
There's a small Dwemer structure nearby, but it's one of those towers above an elevator shaft which can't be entered from outside unless someone has traveled up with the elevator and exited, leaving the door unlocked. That's not the case here, so we'll have to find another way in.
Clairvoyance leads me uphill, but the girls point out that since our destination is underground, it would make sense for the entrance to be somewhere lower. And there are wooden walkways leading downhill.
All right, let's see where they end up. I really feel my brain is not working and decide to trust the girls' gut feeling.
The walkways take us to Alftand Glacial Ruins. We enter a relatively wide ice corridor where we find dead bodies of some people. They have a journal with them. It's a group of at least seven who were trying to find something valuable here. This doesn't seem to be in any way relevant to us.
We soon end up in a typical Dwemer dungeon, except that there are blocks of ice, icicles and such here and there. And Dwarven automatons who come to life and jump out of their hiding places as we approach, yet don't attack us. The soap really works!
It's an awesome feeling to be able to walk through a Dwemer ruin like this. Those spider-shaped things are so cute I feel like stroking them, but I don't want to push my luck too far. I mean, maybe they are designed to automatically give you a shock or something when touched. Apart from which, they won't stand still.
Then we're in icy passages again. We meet a Khajiit man J'darr and nearby a dead Khajiit man J'zhar. They are the brothers mentioned in the journal we found earlier. J'darr informs us his brother died because he was a skooma addict and was left without his fix for too long. I tell him he can come along or stay here, just as he pleases. He stays with his brother for the time being. I don't know how he's going to get out past those automatons, but it's not really my concern. If he doesn't want to come with us, we're not going to carry him.
We move through more and more Dwemer structures. The rooms are getting bigger. I'm reminded many times that the Dwemer Soap effect doesn't protect against traps. On the bright side, we see some faces on wall carvings which are much nicer than those scary yellow ones one usually sees on and in Dwemer buildings.
By noon we've arrived in an area of huge caverns with signs of Falmer presence. We find the dead body of an Orc woman who was also part of that group of treasure hunters. There's so much blood that it can impossibly be all hers. I can imagine she killed a few Falmers and other Falmers took their dead bodies away.
All of a sudden, a Falmer is all over us before we know it. Quite tough one, really, but we kill it.
I'm very lucky to get a picture of a living Falmer at such a close range.
Then there's a group of human bandits with fire traps. I mean, the flame-bursting things are left by the Dwemers, I presume. They don't take sides, just make things complicated for us.
During that battle, I take a risky shot very dangerously close to Lydia. I still hit the bandit, but the scare I got makes me realize I need to stop playing nanny to the girls. If a follower gets in my line of fire, I just have to trust her to be able to do her job. I don't have to get a shot at the enemy at any price.
The bandits we've killed seemed to live in Falmer tents with curious objects inside, the purpose of which remains a mystery to us.
We move on and get attacked by groups of Falmers who are (unsurprisingly) much tougher than the human bandits were. Then we arrive in what was obviously a torture room. There's the dead body of a woman who the treasure hunters' journal said had been kidnapped at night, as well as the remains of a human in a bowl of glowing coals next to a torture rack. I can't get out of this repulsive place fast enough.
We proceed down stone walkways that have ice and snow here and there, fight a few Falmers and (flesh-and-blood) spiders, and arrive in an open space (more accurately, the roof is so high we can't see it in this near-darkness) where we need to find a switch to open a large gate. There is much to explore on this side of the gate and when I hear someone attack, I let my girls handle it and continue looking behind each nook and cranny. Then I find the switch for the gate.
Having entered the area behind the gate, we can see a large Dwemer automaton who is hostile. The effect of our special soap has worn off. Fine. We've had our picnic, now we can just as well start earning our loot. But it was fun while it lasted, I can assure you that.
Some Falmers look so sad and vulnerable that I can't help feeling sorry for them
in spite of the evidence of their unspeakable cruelty I saw a few hours ago.
Can't be there's no one in the world who would know how to communicate with them.
I must find one.
At the other end of that cavern stand a man and a woman. They refuse to talk to us. Actually, it's customary between decent people to at least answer a greeting and introduce oneself, but we're obviously not going to kill them just for being uncourteous. We go on minding our own business and let them mind theirs.
Nearby is an elevator which might well take us into that small tower near the abandoned camp we saw on the surface, but we're not going there yet. Instead of the elevator, we turn our attention to an apparatus whose purpose we don't know. I try to ask those two strangers if they know what it does, but they won't answer. Maybe they don't understand our language? If so, where might they possibly be from?
Doesn't really matter, does it? We realize that one of the mysterious objects Septimus gave me fits in the opening of that apparatus. I put it there and can just barely jump aside when the floor opens under me. The girls grab my arms. A staircase has been revealed. It's not high enough for me to have broken my legs falling down... I think. I mean, what with my khajiitborn skills and all. But never mind that. At the foot of the stairs is a door to a place called Blackreach.
Bingo!
This is more than just a huge-huge cavern. As we're to find out soon, it's really a vast underground open space with those jellyfish-shaped things floating in the air, very large ones this time, and Dwemer structures here and there, although the walls and ceiling seem to be natural rock. I think this place looks precisely like something one would call "Blackreach".
Our earlier encounter with friendly Dwemer automatons as well as some great close-range pictures I got of Falmers have greatly improved my mood, and right now I'm feeling exhilarated by this mildly scary beauty. And I assure you, this place is beautiful. One of the prettiest locations I can remember and by far the most spectacular among poorly-lighted ones.
Having entered through the door, we find ourselves on a large stone platform from which a staircase descends to the ground. I detect a hostile humanoid creature at some distance, and start shooting without giving it much thought. Pure routine.
Wrong. That creature is unusually tough. It's called The Soul Guardian and it takes us literally dozens of arrows to bring it down.
It's incredible. I've never seen anything quite like it. Its hits are weak, but its protection is unbelievable. So the fight is very long, but not awfully dangerous.
After that, I kill a flying chaurus from a considerable distance and that's pretty much all the fighting we have to do here.
One of the nearest buildings is a laboratory of someone called Sinderion. Inside we find the corpse of a man with that name, as well as a ghost of a girl named Tyllia. She walks around, but won't talk to us. She gives us her diary of sorts, though.
It takes me considerable time to read it all, and I can't make much sense of it. Tyllia's life has been very tragic, but it was largely her own fault. After doing something extremely stupid and irresponsible, she ended up being held captive by a witch who made her sleep and wrote down her dreams. Or was it Fellaqui, that dead man I found in Winterhold? I don't understand who was exactly doing what, but the journal clearly suggests that we might find a clue to the mystery with an "artist" in Hviterun. I've no idea who could be meant by that. None of us knows any artists in Hviterun. But we'd better ask around there, as Tyllia won't talk to us and we can't do anything for her right now. At least she doesn't look like she's in any immediate distress.
We exit the laboratory and walk around, marveling at the sights and looking for a place where an Elder Scroll might be.
I notice a large slumbering humanoid, possibly a Dwemer killing machine. Greatly discouraged by our battle with that "soul guardian", I proceed with utmost caution. I use my Aetherial Staff to conjure a Dwarven Sphere right in front of that big thing. Nothing happens. I mean, my automaton materializes all right, but the slumbering giant doesn't react. We go closer. It's indeed a humanoid automaton. I shoot an arrow into it, but it has no effect. There's a switch nearby. I think it's for the activation of the thing. I won't try it. As we walk past, the colossus doesn't stir.
We eventually arrive by a door to Silent City Catacombs. That doesn't sound quite right. We're rather looking for a tower, as I believe to remember from Septimus's instructions. So we move on, slowly and alert.
That's me, and behind me is Lydia.
It's gotten quite late (which of course doesn't show in this underground location in any way) when we notice a very high tower.
That seems to be our destination. I hope we won't have to climb all the way up.
We sneak closer without meeting anyone. It's called Tower of Mzark. Fortunately, there's an elevator which takes us to a large room. There's no one there, but there are bedmats. I decide we'll get some sleep before proceeding.
next awakening
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