Skyrim Day 016 - Upon A Bed of Stone

1 Heartfire, 4E201

Markarth

~~~

This morning I decided that the next city on my list is Markarth, known for being built over an ancient Dwemer fortification which Markarth was not ashamed to draw its architecture from. Having had quite some experience with Dwemer ruins I was pretty sure I knew what to expect.

As I was leaving Riverwood I came upon a somewhat-hidden shrine to Talos...surrounded by the bodies of his worshipers.

The cause of their death was partially hidden in some nearby bushes. The Thalmor's body had on it a letter evidently from a superior berating his efforts at uncovering this unfortunate group of Talos worshipers. The letter-writer haughtily told the Thalmor, Sanyon, to investigate it himself and stop wasting her time with his worthless reports. She will never know he both succeeded and failed.

While enjoying a peaceful walk along the river I was surprised to discover what appeared to be a now-ancient Oblivion portal gently crumbling on a tiny island in the middle of the river. The sight was surprising and the memories that surfaced were melancholy, even if "good" won in the end...not that it had really mattered, I suppose.

I had just passed Half-Moon Mill when I heard someone in the forest to my left alternately muttering to himself and calling for help. Thinking it a trap I considered walking on, but I could not bring myself to abandon a potentially wounded person to Skyrim's wildlife and approached the voice warily.

It was not a trap, but a wounded hunter sitting in front of a cave. As I approached he asked me if I had any healing draughts to spare and his need for one was obvious, so I gave him one of my weaker ones. He introduced himself as 'Valdr', one of a group of local hunters who had tracked a bear into the cavern he was sitting in front of. Unfortunately the group became the hunted once they entered the cave and the his friends were killed by Spriggans.

He asked if I would accompany him back inside the cave to recover the bodies, but he was in no state to fight off a single Spriggan, let alone the three he estimated. Still feeling somewhat down from my earlier encounter with the ruined Oblivion gate I agreed to take on the task myself in his name, if only to make myself feel a bit better. Valdr was surprised that a stranger would do something like that for him and assured me he would remain outside the cave to await my return.

The remains of the first of the man's friends were not far into the cave. The corpse of the bear they had been hunting lay nearby, but the man had been struck in the back, probably while fleeing.

I was not surprised when the first spriggran jumped out of a tree near the poor man's corpse. A single crossbow bolt was enough to send the creature crashing against the wall, dead. The remaining two Spriggans ambushed me near the second dead hunter, but both proved just as predictable as the first, emerging from the only two large trees in the vicinity. They both fell to my crossbow, one immediately, the other after I unwisely tried using the crossbow as a melee weapon. It worked, sort of, putting the creature off-balance and allowing me to reload, but another attempt at such and I may find myself without a functional weapon.

Valdr was still where I had left him and he presented me his steel "lucky dagger" as a reward. I wonder at how much luck the weapon possesses as all of his friends have died, but he still lives, so that may be something.

Continuing towards Markarth I was of course attacked by bandits, this time a duo consisting of an Orsimer and a Nord. The Orsimer had a lovely garnet hidden upon him, as well as a silver ring with a ruby set into it. I suspect his Nord partner was not aware of them.

Just outside of Markarth I met a Khajiit caravan moving on to their next stop. 'Caravan' might be a bit generous, they were really just four Khajiit with packs on their backs, but the leader was happy to purchase the garnet and ring from me at a good price. I warned them of the dangers I have been encountering along the road, but they were confident that they could deal with whatever they faced.

I knew Markarth depended largely on mining to keep itself solvent and as I entered the outskirts of the city I saw a group of miners gathered together, most of them yelling at a pensive-looking man.

As I drew closer I could hear the miners shouting about the 'Forsworn', otherwise known as the 'Madmen of the Reach'. The trouble I had witnessed was due to a nearby gold mine having been overrun by Forsworn rebels. The miners wanted the mine retaken by the city's guards, but the foreman, Skaggi Scar-Face, could not guarantee a rapid response from the city's forces. Frustrated, everyone was dispersing as I approached Skaggi.

He wearily greeted me, noting that it was unusual to see a Khajiit traveling alone. I let the comment pass and asked him about the occupied mine. He had no more information than the complaints he had just received: Forsworn swarmed into the mine, killed most of the miners, and sent the few survivors fleeing back to the city.

The mine was a gold mine and its liberation would no doubt come with a hefty reward. I had never fought the Forsworn before, so that was a concern, but nevertheless I agreed to make an attempt against the rebels. Skaggi was grateful that someone would help him, but did not think I would survive the attempt. This did not do much for my confidence.

Kolskeggr Mine lay to the northeast of Markarth along the road which eventually led back to Solitude. My first encounter with the Forsworn came in the form of a painted man wearing furs, an antlered helmet, and wielding weapons made solely of wood and stone. It was not a fair fight.

More Forsworn patrolled the interior of the mine, but their haphazard clothing left them defenseless against my crossbow and soon the entire mine was filled with their dead and dying. Before leaving I borrowed a pickax and helped myself to some of the gold ore along the cavern walls. With no treasure coming from the Forsworn I felt I was due a little something.

My reward from the miners was a considerable sum: 750 Septims. Including that with the gold I mined made this little adventure worth almost two thousand Septims, all of which will likely go towards training if I ever visit Winterhold College.

By then night had fallen, but the city's gate was still open. Coincidentally I arrived just in time to witness an attempt on a woman's life. As soon as I had entered the city a man in front of me drew a dagger and started towards a woman whose back was turned to him. A quick flick of my wrist sent my Elven dagger into his own back and he turned on me with a scream just as a nearby guard cut him down for good.

I was able to retrieve my dagger before a horde of guards rushed to the scene, but they were only interested in shooing everyone away from the corpse. The woman whose life I saved thanked me and told me to visit her in the local inn when I had the time and a man who had witnessed the entire episode handed me a letter which he noticed I had dropped. The implication was obvious and I headed to the inn for some privacy.

Privacy was the only thing the 'Silver-Blood Inn' could provide. In keeping true to the Dwemer origin of the city, the beds were solid slabs of stone with furs laid on top of them. Hardly close to my idea of comfort.

The letter that I had "dropped" only said to be at the Shrine of Talos at midnight. That there even was such a shrine surprised me and the short notice surprised me further: it was already halfway to midnight when I entered the inn, leaving me just enough time to write all this down.

I will be leaving for this Shrine in a few moments, provided I can even find it. If not, my mysterious letter-writer will simply have to wait another day.

Oblivion Day 16 - Within a Dream

12 Heartfire, 3E433

Bravil

~~~

If the outside of Bravil's Mages Guild was shabby and worn-down, it did well to disguise the inside of the Guild, both materially and organizationally. The Guild's master is Kud-Ei, an Argonian with a very strict sense of responsibility and obvious pride in her Hall and her people. She greeted me and immediately assumed (correctly) that I had come to her seeking a recommendation.

Kud-Ei apologized for not having a "conventional" task to assign to me, being preoccupied instead with friction between two of her guildmates, the Dunmer Varon Vamori and the Altmer Ardaline. I assumed the difficulty was due to hostility between the two, but the reverse was actually the case: Varon had an interest in Ardaline, but all of his advances have been spurned. For whatever reason, the man decided to steal his would-be lover's magical staff and she could not bring herself to confront him, leaving the problem at Kud-Ei's feet instead and as a result, mine as well.

Kud-Ei did not want to get involved as the rest of the Guild did not yet know about the theft and she did not want to embarrass Ardaline by bringing her authority to bear on Varon. What Kud-Ei was willing to do was far more clever: I was to speak with Varon and use Illusion spells while doing so to make the man more willing to talk. Thus, I would be helping Kud-Ei and presumably learning something about magic in the process, though I feel what magic I wound up using was still within my rather depleted set of skills. I was given several scrolls to enhance my personality and free reign to tackle this problem however I saw fit.

The freedom was nice, but there was little else to do but speak to Varon. With a scroll providing me with additional charisma, I approached Varon and asked him directly about the missing staff. He readily replied that he did, in fact, take it, but could not justify the action even to himself. Varon stated that he only wanted Ardaline to feel about him the way he felt about her, but admitted to completely botching his latest stratagem by both taking the staff and then, astonishingly, selling it to a friend of his in the Imperial City, Soris Arenim. 

When I reported back to Kud-Ei with news of the staff's location I was given more scrolls and asked to travel to the City in order to retrieve the staff. Again, how I accomplished this was my decision alone. Fortunately, it was still early in the morning and the Imperial City was not a time-consuming destination from Bravil by horse, so I went back to the stables and rode back to the Capital. Having encountered nothing hostile along the way, I arrived about two hours later, having made good time.

Varon had given me the location of his friend's home, so I had no trouble finding where the staff was, but acquiring it would be a different matter. When I arrived at the man's house he already had a visitor present, so I spent some time talking with his wife, Erissare. With one of Kud-Ei's scrolls discreetly in effect she told me that the staff was locked away in the basement and that the key was upstairs in their bedroom. Having learned this, I waited until both husband and wife were busy with their business visitor and sneaked upstairs to take the key. With another scroll I convinced both of them that I was in the market for a staff and they allowed me into the basement alone. From there it was a simple matter to take the staff, though I did leave one hundred Septims in the drawer where the staff had been to soothe my conscience. Leaving the house was a rather uncomfortable and stiff affair, as I wound up tying the staff to the side of my leg underneath my gown.

I did not dally at the City, instead immediately returning to the stables before either one of them called the guards on what seemed to me to be an obvious theft. Hopefully the coin will soothe their tempers. When I arrived back at Bravil it was just after dinner and I was looking forward to an evening of magical study, but that was not to be. I received the promise of a recommendation, but Kud-Ei asked if I would be interested in helping her with a more personal problem. The Guild specializes in my magical School of choice so I agreed figuring that it was only good to earn the Guildmaster's favor if I was to be a somewhat frequent visitor.

The personal problem was the disappearance of her friend, Henantier. He had a reputation for being careless with his experiments and she feared one had finally gotten the better of him. When I expressed my interest in helping her find the man she sighed and told me that she had been lying slightly: Henantier was not missing, but...unavailable, in a way. His latest experiment was in finding a way to enter his own dreams where he could study or train as much as he liked. Kud-Ei's story about him disappearing was merely a cover to protect him from being expelled from the Guild, as his latest experiment was well outside the accepted norms.

I was led to his house where he remained trapped in his own dream, courtesy of an amulet he constructed. Kud-Ei had the amulet and told me that all I had to do was wear the amulet before I went to sleep and I should then find myself inside Henantier's dreamworld. She would not go herself, fearing that her friend's memories of her would make it impossible for her to convince him that he was merely dreaming. I, as a stranger, would have no such difficulty. So I placed the amulet upon myself and settled into the bed next to the restless man, nervous about what I would wake up to, so to speak.

The man's dream was a nightmare of the worst sort. He was trapped in what looked like a ruined version of his own bedroom, everything was colored by a sickly red light, and he had no idea who or where he was. I also happened to be naked, much to my displeasure.

Speaking to Henantier only generated the babbling that he had lost several items in the area and repeatedly asked me to find them until I agreed. A brief exploration of the tiny area revealed four different doors, but I found nothing that suggested it might be one of the "lost" items. It was clear that these items of his lay behind each of the doors.

Each door contained a test, I suppose each one was to improve some skill or spell. The first door I chose placed me in an arena with a two-handed blade and two angry Minotaurs. Defeating each of them was easier than I anticipated, as it only took a single blow to fell these dream foes. After defeating both of them a staircase appeared at one end of the arena leading towards a small ball spinning wildly within a shaft of bright light. It strongly reminded me of the Oblivion stones. Taking it sent me back to Henantier.

The other three doors led to different tests. One was simply a room filled with traps, the second contained three sets of tiles that needed to be walked on in a precise order and the third, my least favorite, had me swim through an increasingly dark, foreboding tunnel until I finally reached dry land and the last of the dream-stones.

Once I had all the stones talking to Henantier began to have some positive results. He accepted my story of being sent into his dream by Kud-Ei to rescue him and lamented his own foolishness at being conquered by the tests that were supposed to improve him. With understanding came release and his dreamworld dissolved around us as we both woke up.

Now awake and back in the real world, Henantier was very thankful and gifted me six scrolls as a reward, though I have not yet looked to see what they do. Kud-Ei was just as grateful for the safe return of her old friend and promised me discounts at the Guild whenever I return. 

Despite having slept I was utterly exhausted and bade them farewell so that I could take my plain lodgings at the 'Silverhome on the Water' inn. Tomorrow I make the long trip to Leyawiin and I am certainly not looking forward to the ride from that city to Cheydinhal later this week. But my tour of the province's Mages Guilds is almost complete and then I can hopefully find someone in the University to explain what the Oblivion stones actually are.

Morrowind Day 16 - Disturbing Dreams

31 Last Seed

~~~

I woke at midnight this morning after having a disturbing dream. In it, a gaunt, tall figure wearing a large golden mask led me down an aisle, through a party of ghostly figures and apparitions all talking among themselves. The figure would pause to talk and laugh with the ghosts, but they ignored him, talking among themselves. My strange host did not seem bothered by this and continued to try and converse with various guests. I struggled to speak within the dream, but found I could neither speak, breathe, or break the man's hold on my arm as he led me towards a giant iron statue at the other end of the room. I woke up before we reached the statue, feeling sad and nostalgic for nothing in particular. My waking did not disturb the other sleeping members of the Mages Guild and I fell back asleep, untroubled by further dreams and waking up again in time for breakfast.

I intended to visit Vivec to search for the books Hasphat's notes referenced, so I wasted no time in delivering the notes to my friend, who then asked that I talk to Sharn gra-Muzgob at the Mages Guild about another task. Assuming that it would be a quick task (the last of such an assumption I'll be making!), I agreed to see what needed to be done. I mentioned my dream and my friend became more disturbed than I had been, cautioning me that the Temple locks people up when they have strange dreams. I find that interesting, as it sounds like other people are experiencing similar dreams as my own.

Sharn gra-Muzgob had a rather distasteful task for me: swipe an enchanted skull from a Dunmer tomb and bring it back to her. The reason for this is probably best left unknown. Sharn gave me directions to the tomb, just south of Pelagiad, as well as an enchanted iron short sword and four scrolls of offensive magic. The sword was for the tomb's undead guards, but my silver spear made her sword unnecessary and I sold it to Ra'Virr for a few Septims. The scrolls I kept, then forgot to use later on.

As usual, the walk from Balmora to Pelagiad was uneventful and I easily found the tomb dug into the hills just before the crossroad to Seyda Neen. The entrance was unassuming, but at the foot of the stairs just inside the tomb lay the body of a male Dunmer. A quick search of his body turned up nothing of interest and I could not determine what had killed him, though he had not been dead long.

The tomb's guardians were largely no threat, mostly ghosts and skeletons, both of which fell to my silver spear and sword. The skull, however, was guarded by a disgusting abomination the Dunmer call a Bonewalker. The name is somewhat inaccurate, as the creature is more meat than bone...slimy, foul-smelling, rotting meat. It is quick to close distance to its victim, but once engaged, strikes with weak magicka and slow, clumsy swipes of its arms. I made short work of the creature, but not before it got in a few hits that left me feeling drained and weak for a few minutes.

The skull was sitting on a small stool positioned before a large basin filled with bones and bonemeal, obviously used ritualistically by the Dunmer for some purpose. A large chest sat beside it, but oddly only contained a few spoons. 

I was surprised to find it was already night when I stepped out of the tomb and into the warm, humid air of the Bitter Coast. Fighting always makes the time pass quicker somehow. Darkness can hide nothing from a Khajiit though, so I stopped in Pelagiad only to sell a few of the trinkets I had taken from the tomb. On my way out, I was accosted by a Dunmer babbling about Dagoth Ur and the Sixth House, stating that he had a message for me from the fallen lord. The message wasn't much, just more talk about driving out all the Outlanders and securing Morrowind for the Dunmer people. What was chilling, however, is that this insane man knew my name. I shook him off and continued to Balmora, he didn't follow me but I will be more cautious as I travel from now on.

I arrived at the Balmora Mages Guild at 10pm, a fact which was immediately pointed out by Ranis as I walked in, but she didn't seem displeased. The other guild members seem content to stay inside and study and I'm sure Ranis would have tasks for me if I asked, but I'm too busy right now with the mystery of Dagoth Ur and the Sixth House. As usual, today's original plans are going to have to be pushed off until tomorrow.

Before turning in for the night, I handed over the painted skull of Llevule Andrano to Sharn and she rewarded me with information. According to her, the cult of Nerevarine, which the Temple prosecutes, believes that the Nerevarine will be reborn to honor the ancient promises to the Ashlander tribes which are as follows: The Nervarine will destroy the Tribunnal Temple,  restore the traditional practice of ancestor worship, and drive the Outlanders from Morrowind. Both the Temple and the Empire have outlawed overt worship of this cult, but the Temple actively stalks and "takes care" of its members in a most brutal fashion. I can't say I care much for anyone whose goal is to drive all of us Outlanders out of Morrowind either.