Oblivion Day 22 - A Simple Joke

18 Heartfire, 3E433

Bruma

~~~

It feels somehow fitting that my personal quest to gain entry into the University should be completed on such a pointless, ridiculous note. The Guild was still asleep when I called upon it early in the morning, leaving me with nothing to do but examine the Hall for clues as to what would be required of my recommendation here. I found nothing unusual to indicate what would be expected of me, but that's only due to not knowing how incompetent Bruma's guildmaster was.

Her name is Jeanne Frasoric, a Nord who owes her position due to her sociability rather than her ability. The other members see her as something of a joke and it is common knowledge throughout the guild that she still relies on a basic manual to cast even the simplest of spells. Not that it concerns me at all, I just needed her to write a recommendation so that I could move on. But the lack of respect the Guild has for her would influence what my task would be.

The task sounded similar to Skingrad's: find a missing mage, J'skar, before anyone outside of the guild (somehow...) realized that Jeanne could not keep track of her own people. The guild boasted the smallest roster of individuals of any of the guilds, so asking around did not take long. The Altmer Volanaro agreed to help me if I would first help him play a prank on Jeanne. All I had to do to find J'skar was to fetch Jeanne's Manual of Spellcraft from her desk and deliver it to Volanaro. He taught me an Alteration spell to unlock simple locks, but it was beyond my capability to cast, simple though it was. My only skill lies in Illusion magic, but a Khajiit with a lockpick is better than any spell. I sneaked into Jeanne's room, picked the lock on her desk, pocketed the volume, and was back in front of Volanaro with no one else the wiser.

For his part Volanaro told me to come back at ten o'clock at night to find out where J'skar was, which irritated me a little bit, but if all I had to do to gain my recommendation was to wait, then that was fine. It did provide me with the question of what I was to do with the rest of the day though. No one at the Guild was interested in teaching me anything and none of them had any Illusion spells to purchase, so I left the Hall and wandered out of town.

My vague plan was to mount up and ride east into the wilderness in an effort to find an Oblivion gate to close. I have been finding so many of them lately that it seemed that if I picked a direction and rode long enough I would find one. That turned out to be completely true, though after a great deal of riding.

The gate led me nowhere new, though I found myself facing a great deal of Dremora and Clannfear in place of the Scamps I have grown accustomed to. Nevertheless, I closed the gate without much difficulty, as is usual.

Near the expired gate lies an ornate tower, but when I approached I found it to be completely abandoned. I wonder who resided there.

I wandered around a bit more looking for more Gates, but found none. When the sun started to dip below the horizon I judged it late enough to head back to Bruma in time to solve the mystery of J'skar.

It was not much of a mystery. I arrived back at the Guild at about half past ten and Volanaro was true to his word. He bade me wait in the living quarters for a few minutes, then returned, apparently alone. But with a single incantation the Khajiit J'skar popped into existence next to him, having been invisible the entire day. This was their strange idea of a joke.

Funny or not, my work was done and I was able to report to Jeanne that I had located her missing Khajiit. She was not at all interested to hear what had happened to him and assured me that my recommendation was practically on its way already, adding that she hoped I would remember her in the future. 

And with that I am done with my required recommendations. Tomorrow I shall ride back to the Imperial City and hopefully find my way into the University unbarred. Then I can find out what these stones are and maybe pick up some Illusion spells as well. Once I am more skilled in combat and magic I can once again pick up with the Blades and fight off these increasingly threatening invasion.