Oblivion Day 31 - Counter-Assault on Oblivion, Part 6

28 Heartfire, 3E433

Bravil

~~~

Today was largely spoken for already, with three Gates to close and a hidden cultist in Bravil to unmask. My first task was to ease the city's worry by closing the Gate that obliterated the watchtower ruin.

The Gate led me nowhere I had not seen before, but the denizens within were significantly more powerful and well-equipped than I have been accustomed to. I fought three Dremora who were armed with long blades, powerful spells, and upon investigation of their bodies, enchanted rings and amulets to further boost their prowess and my wealth.

With Bravil's Gate safely closed, I turned my attention to the two nearby Gates that I had found on either side of the road north of the city. This seems to be the pattern: one Gate opened very close to the city and two opened some distance away, perhaps to serve as passages for a rearguard or flanking force.

The Gate on the east side of the road led me to the familiar Plane with the two small towers and their locks connecting to the tower holding the Sigil Stone. Fortunately this Gate was not nearly as well guarded as Bravil's Gate had been and I fought my way through Scamps and Clannfear until I unlocked the bridge to the large tower and claimed the second Stone of the day.

That left me with one more Gate to close northwest of the city in some forest.

The third Gate was unremarkable save for an Elven mace I found lying next to a completely burned corpse. Never one to be squeamish around profit I took the mace, intending to enchant and sell it later in the week. This Gate too was closed with no problems.

My final order of business wound up resolving itself. As I rode back to town from the last Gate I thought about how to find Bravil's cultist. I anticipated spending several days in the city before meeting with any sort of result and stepped through the city gate completely unawares.

The whipping sound of summoning magicka alerted me that something was wrong as soon as I stepped inside Bravil. Still trying to register what was happening, I looked to my left at the charging form of a Mythic Dawn agent, mace raised and ready. The cultist, an Altmer her shocked neighbors identified as Ranaline, appeared to have been laying in wait just inside the gate.

The guards arrived to take the body away and one of them stopped to tell me that the re-building of Kvatch was soon to begin, as the last of the Daedra embedded in the wreckage had been destroyed. Good news for a change, I suppose, but the rest of the province is still under the same threat Kvatch was.

Tomorrow I shall spend a day in Bravil to solve the mystery of Ursanne Loche's missing husband, a task I guiltily remembered taking on the last time I was in town, possibly over a week ago. I do hope the man has managed to look after himself this whole time.