Always Lost, Always Hopeful (109) Anomalies

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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






4-201-12-03 10:35
a tent, Pale Imperial Camp, The Pale, Skyrim


I'm feeling great. It's light outside, although there's barely a clear spot in the cloudy sky.

Wading through the thick snow on our way to Dånstar, we pass by some bandits at some distance who seem to be excited to see us, but they can't be bothered with this snow.

In Dånstar, I'm happy to see the Khajiit trader Ahkari with her two assistants. I admire her almost black face with lighter gray on the sides.

It's early enough, so I can go through all the traders in town and do some mining as well, and Lydia has time to go on a patrol or something with her boyfriend. One of the miners named Gjak seems quite likeable in his unsophisticated way. I can't make up my mind if I should seduce him or use the opportunity to reach Winterhold in daylight. Or maybe try to get through that mysterious Black Door north of the town which the locals say is very bad and dangerous?

I decide to stick to my plan and proceed to Winterhold. There are two possible routes.

We could take the road (yellow arrow on the map) and spend the night in the Nightgate Inn (green dot), but the problem is it's almost three times longer than the direct way along the northern coast (blue arrow). The downside of the shorter path is that there's nowhere to spend the night and the terrain is so bad you don't travel there in darkness if you can avoid it.

After some councel with Jenassa and Mikki, I decide we'll head for Winterhold along the coast without delay. That is after we've found Lydia and then spent some time admiring a group of lovely horkers having fun. We see many more horkers along the coast. There are also bears whom we won't bother to fight. We just run past. The only time I make a stop is when a bear is attacking a horker.

We kill the bear and move on.

Once again, I look at this island and wonder what's that structure,
but I'm not yet curious enough to swim over and find out.

A little more than halfway to Winterhold, between Hob's Fall Cave and Saarthal, I stop when I suddenly hear some weird rumbling, or it could be an unusually low-pitched roar. We look very carefully in every direction, but we can't see anything stirring anywhere. We run on. A little later, we see a dragon north of us. That weird noise might have been the echo of his roaring between the mountains. I tell the girls to just go on running without slowing down. Let the dragon come to us if he wants to.

He doesn't. Soon we arrive on the coast north of Winterhold and spend some time looking for the way uphill and arrive in the town well before dark.

Now, my instinct tells me strongly that there'll be some serious trouble later today and I ought to go and report to Savos Aren as soon as I can. Yet, I can't help going to the inn first and then shopping. I won't let my followers go, though. I instruct them to be on the lookout all the time. They sense my nervousness, but they don't ask what it's about, and if they would, I couldn't explain anyway.

We go to the College and check out the vendors as well as the gossip.

Master Tolfdir tells me he has misplaced his alembic somewhere and he would be very grateful if I found it. I don't even know what an alembic is. Mikki informs me it's that thing you do alchemy with. Whatever, I can't think of that now. I'm getting increasingly nervous. When I run into Onmund who tries to chat me up, I finally realize I've been walking through dormitories and striking up meaningless conversations merely in order to postpone my meeting with Savos. Such attitude won't do, I tell myself. I must face whatever horrors may be awaiting me, and, come to think of it, there hasn't even been anything out of the ordinary so far. Everything is peaceful. Possibly I'm being anxious for no reason at all.

I have to go and find Savos. He may be in his quarters. So the girls and I just walk across the courtyard towards the entrance of the study hall, each one of us very much alert in spite of the lack of any signs of danger.

In the foyer from which staircases lead to the library and to the Arch-Mage's quarters, I meet Savos and Mirabelle. The path to the study hall (where, as you may remember, the Eye of Magnus is) is blocked by a somewhat frightening greenish-blue glow.

The Arch-Mage suspects Ancano is doing something in there and we need to get through the barrier and I should help. I'm not quite sure what it is I'm supposed to do, but Savos and Mirabelle succeed in shrinking the forcefield, so we can run in. Indeed, there is Ancano doing something.

I shoot a few arrows, but they fail to damage him. Savos shouts to Ancano to stop, without any result. Then Savos tries to cast a spell. It results in something like an explosion. I'm hurled out of the hall into the foyer.

When I come to, I see Mirabelle sitting on the floor. She wants me to go and find the Arch-Mage. I'm worried about her, but she insists she's fine, she just needs to catch her breath.

Very well. I stand up. My followers appear, panting and shaken. We go out into the yard. A group of greatly confused people has gathered there. Tolfdir tells me Savos Aren is dead. Keeping the crowd away, he asks me what happened inside. I tell him we must go and help Mirabelle. He promises he'll take care of her, but right now I am to go with Faralda, our most competent Destruction mage, because something utterly horrible is attacking the town below us.

Gosh. That's the last thing we need – another excuse for the townspeole to suspect the mages of playing with dark forces!

Me and my followers run after Faralda. I can see from the high bridge that there are some glowing blue things flying around. I try to ask Faralda if she knows more about what we're up against, but she acts like she's not hearing me. So all I can do is rush down the stairs after her.

There's a massive fight going on – guards, some workers, even horses are in utter panic, standing up on their hind legs and trying to kick with their front legs. Of course the poor animals don't stand a chance against those magical creatures. They are basically like icewraiths, except that they seem bigger and, as I said, glow in blue. Lucky it's dark so they're clearly visible – for what good it is with them flying so fast that they're virtually impossible to hit.

I grab my bow and start shooting. There's nothing else to do. I'm very worried about hitting people who decidedly don't glow in darkness. Horses are at least so big that they're difficult to overlook, but humans are impossible to see from distance. Yet, I have to take the risk. I can't wait until the sunrise, can I?

So, for the next I've-no-idea-how-much-time, I can think of nothing except running around with those blue things swishing back and forth all around me, and firing arrows of which at best one of six hits. I find out that the things are not only hard to hit – they're really tough to kill too. So is, fortunately, Lydia whom I hit once by accident.

When they're all dead and my followers are all alive, I see that approximately an hour and a half has passed, and I'm almost out of arrows. But only almost. Most amazingly, I went through all of this without taking any damage myself. It's more than I can say about those unfortunate horses. I'm not going to do a body count in the darkness, but at least there are two town guards nearby walking on their own two feet. Me, I need to hurry back to the College to see if Mirabelle is all right... and, well, how's the general situation near that greenish-blue energy bubble. (No, Jenassa, you may not leave yet. We don't know what the situation is like up there. Shame on you!)

Mirabelle is fine, more or less. She tells me the College mages are unable to defeat Ancano and his forcefield. I'm to hurry and find the Staff of Magnus . You may remember that the Cyrodiilian mage I met in Mzulft believed strongly it would be in Labyrinthian.

Mirabelle gives me an amulet that belonged to the late Savos Aren, just in case. She doesn't know what it does, but Savos has told her he got it from Labyrinthian.

Well, I certainly won't be going anywhere tonight. I'm exhausted. Not too exhausted to climb the stairs up to the library, though. (Before that, I let Jenassa go, after having admonished her not to act like that again. I haven't forgotten she's got a boyfriend and I wouldn't keep her from being with him just out of meanness.)

"Did you see how Faralda looked at you?" asks Lydia as we walk up the stairs.
"Um... I didn't, really, to be honest. But she seemed very upset because of the trouble at the College."
"No, it was not that. She was angry with you. It was not just her grumpiness on the bridge. I noticed during the battle how she was aiming her staff at your back. The moment she saw me, she pointed the staff elsewhere. I didn't leave her out of my sight since then."
That's weird. I don't recall ever having had any conflict with Faralda.

Up in the library tower, I'm greeted like a hero. Ertzebet doesn't say anything apart from the usual hello, but I can see the fascination in her face. So I take a deep breath and step up to her and look into her green eyes and put my hand gently onto her upper arm and ask if she would like to come to my house with me.

She would.

I whisper to Lydia to run ahead and tell my housecarl Brynjarr to make himself scarce. Ertzebet is shy enough as it is. She doesn't need to see a man walk out potentially guessing what we're up to.

Her body is of much lighter color than her face. How did she manage to get so tanned in this snowy place? But that's not the point. The point is, when I lick her down there, the modest quiet girl turns into a bomb of passion. She's so eager, so frantic that I even find it a little disturbing. She really needs a boyfriend. But I'm not going to tell her that. Not tonight.

next awakening






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Always Lost, Always Hopeful (98) Know Your Limits

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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






4-201-11-23 08:25
Mzulft Aedrome, Mzulft, Eastmarch, Skyrim


Most of our yesterday consisted of a long journey through a vast system of Dwemer halls and tunnels, and there's no way to tell how much longer this is going to take. All we can do is go forward. In the past, we've traveled by foot several times from Solitud to Bitchen or vice versa. Surely we'll reach the end of this Mzulft place someday.

Indeed it takes our well-rested legs less than an hour to arrive at a big locked door, behind which we sense someone. He evidently senses us too. Realizing we're human, he opens the door. Taken aback, he then demands to know who we are and what we've done to Gavros.

Well, we didn't actually do anything. He died in front of our eyes. We were unable to help.

The man, Paratus is his name, starts rambling about something about some crystal and how it's all lost now. I can't make any sense of what he's saying, but I catch a pause in his litany to show him a crystal I've picked up somewhere and ask him if that's what he's talking about. That gets him so excited he looks like he's struggling not to hug me.

Paratus tells us to follow him and starts walking away so rapidly we must almost run to keep up. I ask him what's going on and he says haughtily that he's on official business of the Grand Council of the Synod and that's all I need to know. But he wants to make it absolutely clear that it was all his idea and Gavros took all the credit. All the credit for what? That's none of my business, he says. I'm getting increasingly irritated. Who does he think he is, this jumped-up functionary from Cyrodiil who has lost all his companions and is evidently unable to complete his mission without our help, yet has the nerve to act almost as haughtily as a thalmor?

Paratus's incessant gabbing leaves me no chance to ask if he knows anything about the Staff of Magnus , so I have to go along with his game for the time being. He leads us to a half-sphere-shaped hall, in the center of which is a structure emitting beams of bright blue light.

Paratus says I'll have to place the "focusing crystal" (as it's called) onto that thing in the center and then change its temperature with the spells Flames and Frostbite  until the lightbeams point the right way.

Silently, I walk towards the podium, thinking: And you, our important guest from Cyrodiil? Are you an even less competent mage than you look? Or are you waiting for an opportunity to stab me in the back once I've done my job? In case you haven't noticed, there are three seasoned warriors standing on different sides of you very alert.

I think he has noticed all right, but there's nothing he can do about it, so he just acts as if everything was normal and he had no bad intentions. And maybe he even hasn't. The most likely explanation to his strange behavior is that he believes that this crystal thing is dangerous. Therefore, he prefers to let someone else take the risk so he can live and go on taking the credit.

My intuition tells me very strongly that the crystal is of no danger. However, getting the lighbeams right turns out utterly impossible. I have to look almost directly upwards to apply the spells, but in order to see the light beams clearly I'd have to hover ten meters in the air and next to the mechanism. It's obviously impossible to do both at the same time and neither were Paratus's instructions very clear. I try and try and then I give up and beg Bardslayer to do it on my behalf. He does.

Paratus is happy, for a moment. Then he says the result is not what he expected. He begins lamenting that there is something creating "interference" and he senses it's in Winterhold.

Well, I can't answer that question if I have no idea what your work is, can I?

He insists I tell him if we have something extremely powerful in the College. I won't tell him anything. Instead, I decisively cut into his babble and ask if he knows where the Staff of Magnus may be. He says it must be in a place called Labyrinthian.

Cyrodiil mages have learned to conjure a map that displays sources of extreme magical energy.
Strangely enough, there are only two of them – one in Winterhold and one in Labyrinthian.
This means the Staff of Magnus has to be in one of those places. Since it's not in Winterhold, it must be in Labyrinthian.
Judging by that crude map, Labyrinthian is somewhere between Hviterun and Dånstar.

Then Paratus goes on bombastically about how my trickery won't confuse him – he has now learned we have something extraordinary at the Winterhold College, so he has beaten my little game and he's going to bring that information back to Cyrodiil and he assures me this is not over.

Well, over is precisely how it is for that pompous bastard after I've killed him. How dare that little rat talk to me like this? In addition to my hurt pride, I could have impossibly let him leave and return to those more-politicians-than-mages (as Mirabelle put it) with what he knew. I have no idea how hostile they may be and how powerful they may be, but my loyalty is with the College and I'm going to let smarter people than myself decide how much we want to share with that Synod group.

But enough of this. Let's get out of here.

There's an exit nearby. Just in front of it, I'm stopped by Nerien, that first psijic I met in Saarthal, remember? I'm now seeing him from a better angle and I don't find him all that attractive anymore. I'm even less impressed by his behavior. He congratulates me and tells me further challenges await me but I will prevail. He sounds exactly like a puppetmaster who amuses himself by directing people into situations to watch how they'll handle them. I hate him. I wonder if there's a way to destroy those psijic scumbags. Somehow I doubt it. Currently I can't as much as come up with an insulting nickname for them. "Pissic Order" doesn't sound quite right, does it? "Prick Order"? No. I give up.

We exit into a crisp winter afternoon. In spite of the cloudy sky, the light seems incredibly bright to us after all that time spent in those tunnels. There's no snowfall, but a strong wind is blowing snow back and forth.

The town of Vernim Wood is but a long steep dangerous descent away. I already feel ecstatic from the mere anticipation of being among normal people again. In my mind's eye, I can see buyers and sellers haggle on the marketplace accompanied by the distant clanking of the blacksmith's hammer while the guards walk slowly around making sure the town under their care is safe.

Um... right. Let's get going.

And here we are after half an hour of climbing down.

Vernim Wood has good crafting facilities, but unfortunately no proper bath. I wonder how they can live like this. At the limit of our carrying capacity, we sell some stuff here and decide to move westwards to Darkwater. As you know, we're actually headed south, but that'll be a mountainous region which means no easily accessible bodies of water. Northwest of Vernim Wood, though, there's the area with all those delightful warm water pools. My plan is this: we'll clean up thoroughly, do our crafting in Darkwater and go south-southwest from there, taking the road that turns east. (See the map below.) That way, we'll reach Shor and after that Bitchen by a slight detour. The latter will undoubtedly be the best place in this region for celebrating Jordis's birthday which is tomorrow.

On our way to Darkwater, we may be able to get a good picture of Billy.

We'll probably spend the night in Darkwater.
Our final destination is, as you can see, south of Bitchen's main city gate, that is within the city walls.
The pink dot is Mzulft where we came from earlier today.
"Our" giant Billy lives near that mushroom-shaped symbol between Vernim Wood and Darkwater.

Our path to the nearest warm water pool is temporarily obstructed by a couple of bears and skeletons and such.

Farther to the northwest is a dragon.

Don't ask me why he isn't attacking. Maybe he likes to watch. At any rate, this a thrill not quite like anything else.

We wash one at a time, the three others keeping an eye on the surroundings. When we're clean and back in our armors, the dragon attacks us after all. Oh, and here's a picture of Billy for you:

In Darkwater, I do some mining and smithing.

Then the girls and I sit in the warm water for a while. We have the open-air bath all to ourselves today. I recall Irileth, Jarl Balgruuf's housecarl. I ask Jenassa why Irileth is often so bellicose. Not that I assume that all Dark Elves are bosom-pals, but maybe Jenassa understands her better.
She shrugs and says noncommittally that Irileth has had a very hard life. After a few seconds of silence, she goes on: "I knew her many years ago. When I came to Skyrim, I heard she was in Hviterun, so I looked her up. But she was not happy to see me. I suppose she doesn't want to be reminded of the old times." I have the distinct impression Jenassa doesn't either, but I don't say anything.
We are all silent for some time and then we get dressed and go to the inn where we sit and chat with the villagers until it's time to go to bed.



next awakening






return to the table of contents

Always Lost, Always Hopeful (97) Following the Trail

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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






4-201-11-22 05:52
Calixto's House of Curiosities, Windhelm, Eastmarch, Skyrim


I meet up with the girls in the bath at the Candlehearth Hall. I'm curious to know what they did last night. They make a half-hearted attempt to get me to report first, but this time I'm unwavering.

Turns out that on Jenassa's suggestion they went to check out the nightlife in the elven quarter. They sat in the New Gnisis inn and got acquainted with a couple of locals, and then they went all together into that shabby inn above the street level. Lydia and Jordis insist and Jenassa denies that Jenassa would have liked to take a room already in the New Gnisis, but then she and her new friend Zirik came along after all. Finally, all three of my followers ended up spending the night there with elven men – in separate rooms this time, though, as Lydia points out.

After breakfast, we set out to the south in the midst of a nice winter morning.

Our destination is the Dwemer ruin Mzulft, but rather than take the highway, I want to go via Kynesgrove and Narzulbur and then try to find a direct way to Mzulft across the mountains.

In Kynesgrove, we make a brief stop at the inn and exchange a few words with the innkeeper Iddra as well as Engrid, the woman with a big axe whom I met in Hviterun. Then we move on uphill to the east.

This is the place where Alduin awakened another dragon that time when we were here with Rudelphine:

We ascend higher still, into the realm of winter. As we approach the Orc village Narzulbur, even a slight snowfall starts:

By the time we enter, the traders are already at work. We also talk to many villagers and visit the mine.

It's half past 10 when we head for Mzulft. After the initial descent down the steep hills south of Narzulbur, the rest is easy. The weather remains beautiful and the air temperature rises quickly. This spruce forest outside the snowy region is utterly adorable. I find myself wishing Mzulft were much farther away than it actually is.

There's no one outside Mzulft. Inside, however, we find a man named Gavros Plinius who is taking his last breaths just as we enter.

Clearly too confused to notice our presence, he drivels something about a crystal and then he's dead. He appears to have been one of those Synod mages from Cyrodiil.

We find a letter on him with instructions from an Adjunct  to the effect that a Conclave  wants something done in the Oculory . I've no idea what any of that means.

We proceed into robust stone corridors lit by eerie yellow-green lamps, and walk among enormous pipes of dark yellow metal and weird moving things, some of which emit steam – a sight so familiar by now that we barely take notice. Our attention is focused on not missing anything that walks on legs.

As I quickly realize, we also have to watch out for things on the floor that trigger heavy or sharp objects hitting you.

From time to time, we encounter Dwarven Spiders as well as dead Cyrodiilian mages. Eventually we reach a system of caves where there are neither massive stone columns nor metal pipes and mechanisms, but there are still those Dwemer lamps, as well as an odd dead Synod member. It's possible this place used to be a mine.

A few of those Synod researchers are female. It's so sad. Women are meant to spread harmony and happiness,
not to get slain in faraway dungeons pursuing somebody's dubious ambitions.
(Although, who am I to say that?)

The caves end and we're in another complex of Dwemer structures. Here we begin to encounter Falmers in addition to an occasional Dwemer killer machine. In one hall, we even run across a human bandit fighting a Falmer.

I know it's difficult to see it from a still picture, but those two are making a hell of a racket up there.
I'm having my bow at the ready just in case. I won't be firing that arrow any time soon.

The bandit wins, but then he's too damned dumb to realize we would pose no threat to him if he'd just walk the other way and allow us to mind our own business.

Eventually we end up in a room that has some of those stone beds typical of Dwemer ruins. They sound much more uncomfortable than they are. As it's past 1 in the night already, I decide we'll get some sleep now.



next awakening






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Always Lost, Always Hopeful (95) Let's Jump Up and Down

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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.
———————————————




previous day






4-201-11-20 08:45
Hall of Attainment, Winterhold, Winterhold, Skyrim


I browse through some books I've picked up recently. At the same time, I listen to a conversation between two fellow students from my Saarthal adventure, Brelyna and Onmund, in the hall outside my room. I watch out for hints at any unusual closeness between them. (No special reason, just curious. I've lost interest for Onmund.) There doesn't seem to be any.

But enough of that. I've got much leg-and-mouthwork to do today.

I find the Arch-Mage Savos Aren in the study hall admiring that glowing sphere. When I try to explain him that we have to find the Staff of Magnus, he needs considerable time to realize I'm not trying to pull some sort of a childish prank on him. Men have such thick heads sometimes. Finally he comes around and even praises my good work and gives me a magical circlet as a reward.

Thank you. It'll be my pleasure.

Mirabelle isn't taking me much more seriously.

Give me a break, the lot of you! What do I have to do to make you realize this is serious? I wouldn't bring up such a topic just for fun.

Fortunately, Mirabelle is more sensible – or less self-important – than Savos. She tells me that the location of the Staff of Magnus is utterly unknown. However, a group of mages – or more politicians than mages – from Cyrodiil turned up in the College recently, apparently under the impression that the Staff was here. When told it wasn't, they went to look for it in the old Dwemer ruin of Mzulft near Vernim Wood. For all she knows, they can still be there. As to the whereabouts of the Staff itself, she knows no more than I do.

I smile and thank her cordially. It's hard not to smile and get cordial when talking to Mirabelle. You know why, I've told you.

Before leaving, I make some small talk with J'zargo who is practising spells nearby. He asks me to help him with spell testing, but I reply he'd better do his own work. I mean, with his attitude the last time, why should I want to help him? Besides, it's not like I'm not busy enough already.

I go to the town. I like the bath at the inn much better than the rather modest washing facilities provided to the students in the College.

That's too bad, sweetie, but I'd really like some privacy right now if you don't mind.

I sit in the bathtub and think things through. (Should have called my followers to help me think.) Mzulft is far in the south, past Windhelm. Instead of wading over those snowy hills again, we'd better take the road that goes southwest and bypasses the high mountains counterclockwise. Just about on our route is Sightless Pit which should contain the last one of the four Welkynd Stones I've been gathering for Nuri in Falkert. This is a very suitable opportunity to go there.

I've heard that Sightless Pit is a real bitch to find. In fact I can remember a dream of going to the area and trying to find it and returning after a futile search hating the whole world. I was coming from the west that time rather than northeast, and it was a dream anyway, so it shouldn't matter very much.

And I had almost forgotten – I'm a thane of Winterhold now, so I'm to be assigned a house and a housecarl. I'll have to pay for it to the steward and then I can take it into possession.

The house is outside the town wall. That's really weird. I mean, it's not like they lack space in the town proper. Those ugly ruins opposite Birna's shop should have been cleared away a long time ago. Instead, the local government has had a house built for their future thane in the midst of some snowy rocks east of the southern gate.

There's a man with red hair and blue eyes waiting for me. He introduces himself as Brynjarr. All right, Brynjarr, let's see what you're made of.

Since I'm the boss, I don't need to play shy. I tell Brynjarr I feel like trying this position:

I'm not dirty. It's the light.

I must say I enjoy this thoroughly. What I like less is Brynjarr's patronizing attitude afterwards. Sure, a man has to be dominant, but not when he's really a servant. I'll have to teach him manners someday.

Currently, though, I need to hurry if I want to get that Sightless Pit job done and find a proper lodging tonight.

I don't know the terrain, but I know it's generally very difficult in this region. The map suggests that we can follow the road south, and halfway to Amol City we ought to be able to get through the mountains.

Yeah, looks like we will be.

We have to kill a couple of trolls and a snow-sabercat along the way, but they're no longer a challenge on our current skill level. However, our destination is just completely impossible to find. It's exactly like it was in that dream, and so seems to be my fury.

All we can find is the mouth of a cave called creatively Abandoned Cave. It's connected to the Sightless Pit, but you can't go there from here, it's only possible to enter through the Sightless Pit and exit through the Abandoned Cave. Clearly Sightless Pit has to be somewhere in the mountains above us, but there's no way to climb up. Looks like we should have approached from a completely different direction, but I've no idea which, and we could easily spend days wandering around in these mountains. After I've tried everything humanly possible to figure out where we should go, I beg Bardslayer to let me float in the air.

He does and drops me next to an altar. I land almost on top of a skeleton who hurries to get up and attack me. There's three of them, in fact, but they're courteous enough to awake one after another, so I can finish them off without breaking a sweat.

This is called Ritual Site. Well, what about that Siteless... Sightless Pit?

Up into the air I go again. This time I find the damned place. It's a hole in the ground next to a Falmer tent that looks rather out of place on this snowy hillside in the middle of nowhere. Whatever. I drop a stone into the hole. There's water down there. It seems safe to jump down, but I tell the girls to wait for my signal just in case. I go in first.

I make an enormous splash falling into the pond below. Still, there's enough water left for my followers to be able to land safely. I climb out, shout for them to follow and watch amusedly.

We walk through a system of icy caves inhabited by a few Falmers and their inseparable companions the chauruses. (Do the Falmers breed them or something?)

The passage ends at the edge of a very very deep round hole. Looks like we have to get down there somehow. It would be certain death if it wasn't for several ledges and thick metal pipes onto which you can jump on your way down. After having descended all the way to the bottom and still in one piece, we have to go up and down inside Dwemer-style structures in a very bad state of repair, killing Falmers and chauruses and even human bandits.

There are also quite a few dead decent-looking humans lying about. Are they treasure-hunters or just bored with living, I wonder. The unspeakable effort and frustration I had to go through to even find this shithole, and all those people have come here just because they couldn't think of anything better to do with their time? What stellar treasures were they hoping to find?

Sorry. I shouldn't be so negative. The enormous hall where we finally find the Welkynd Stone we came for is in fact a spectacular sight, even though it could use a little more light.

Wouldn't look so fabulous with more light, says Jordis. Maybe she's right.

I catch myself thinking that this would be a lovely place to return to have sex someday.

Real sex, with a man. It just isn't the same with a woman. And at the moment I'm thoroughly satisfied anyway. And this is hardly an interesting topic, is it? The point is, there are no more enemies to kill and the exit is quite near.

I tear myself loose from the awe-inspiring Dwemer structures and we head for the elevator. (Isn't it amazing how all those things still work?) The elevator takes us into another system of icy passages, smaller this time. We come out, as was to be expected, through that Abandoned Cave I told you about before.

On our way out, we passed by a door that was barred from the inside. We unbarred it, so now we'll be able, if we so wish, enter from this end, too. But I'm not sure about actually wanting to return to this dismal region just to make love in that fascinating hall. Surely not before I've done it on Dreamborne Isle. I wonder where Lorm is. I really miss him, you know. Maybe he found a job as a sellsword and is now traveling around Skyrim with someone just like I am?

I know I'm Yrsarald's and I've no problem with that, because he's awesome, but there's still something special about Lorm, and I'd be very sad if I were to never meet him again.

Whatever. It's too confusing and this is not the time to rack my brain with such things. It's half past nine, pitch-dark and the weather could hardly be worse. If we won't get moving soon, we'll have not only our eyes and mouths but also our noses and ears full of snow.

The large pink dot is where we are now.
The green marker is Mzulft where we need to get to eventually.

I have my magic ring to give us some light, but where should we go? We're near our carrying capacity, so it's time for another crafting and selling session. I decide to go east, to Amol City, because it's a little closer than Winterhold in the northeast and the latter's smithing facilites leave much to be desired.

We reach Amol City without meeting a living soul. The taproom of the Proud Nord Tavern is, however, full of people socializing. We mingle with the crowd and have a dinner. Then we turn in. They have several rooms for hire downstairs. I mean, in the basement.



next awakening






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