Skyrim Day 059 - Where Be Dragons?

14 Frostfall, 4E201

Ivarstead

~~~

I delivered the Razor's hilt to the misguided Silus and he just about caressed it, marveling at how it seemed to mold itself to his hand. Having never wielded Mehrune's Razor I cannot say if it actually does that, but the man appeared to be enamored by it. I shall have to be careful in returning the remaining pieces to him, if I do at all. I suspect no one who voluntarily seeks the Razor comes to a good end.

On my way out of Dawnstar I was accosted by a highwayman who demanded all of my valuables, else he would "gut me like a fish". I paid him no mind and continued walking by. Evidently surprised, he chased after me, yelling his demand for my goods. When he was close enough I spun around, smacked the dagger out of his hand, and held my own to his throat. Perhaps he shall return to gutting fish.

I was walking towards Whiterun for what felt like the hundredth time, intending to take the crossroads towards Ivarstead, thinking about the return of the Dragons. How did the Stormcloaks control them? Did they control all of them, or just the one at Ulfric's would-be execution? Whatever the case, why was the civil war at a standstill? Were the Dragons under anyone's control? If not, why did one intervene to save Ulfric Stormcloak? Mulling such thoughts over my head, I was completely surprised by sudden roaring and the rush of wind following a low-flying Dragon overhead.

When the Dragon attacked I was just outside of Whiterun, a few minutes walk from the crossroads leading to Ivarstead. It seemed to have shown up just for me, stopping on the side of the road to stare at me for a few moments, but the arrival of six Whiterun guards distracted proved more interesting. As I hurried to load my crossbow the beast landed in front of the nearest farmstead and killed two of the guards right away.

Concerned about hitting the surviving guardsmen, I left my crossbow on the side of the road and hurried across the stream to join them. The guards were too preoccupied with the Dragon to comment on the oddity of a Khajiit rushing to fight alongside them, but I imagine my presence raised a few proud Nordic eyebrows.

With myself and three guards fighting against it, the Dragon evidently felt hard-pressed and took to the air, quickly diving upon a lone guard standing in a nearby field who was prudently keeping his distance with his bow and arrows. The man looked to have been instantly crushed beneath the Dragon's claws as it landed on him and the beast dismissively picked the man's corpse up in its mouth and flung it in our direction, taking flight once again.

Rather than do what I would have done and rained fire on us from the sky. the Dragon landed and started to clumsily crawl towards us. It was an odd sight. But against four foes it fell quickly and my accursed "gift" claimed another Dragon's soul, much to the amazement of the surviving guardsmen. I left before they collected their wits and dragged me back to Whiterun, an episode that would have been an embarrassment for everyone.

I discovered a Stormcloak camp between Whiterun and Ivarstead and was invited in the same as at the other campsites, apparently mistaken for a merchant. The leader of the camp, Hjornskar Head-Smasher, growled that the next Imperial he saw was a dead man. I bit back the retort that his blade would have been better served against the Dragon which attacked Whiterun not more than four hundred yards from his camp.

Near the crossroad leading to Ivarstead I was surprised to find a decapitated head impaled on a stake along the path through the mountains. Deciding to investigate, I crept past the unfortunate head and came upon three charred, impaled bodies displayed around a cave.

The gruesome display marked the cavern's occupants as vampires, but once inside I realized they were mere bandits. The only thing of note was that the bandits had taken the trouble to capture and hold several of Skyrim's most dangerous creatures inside of cages. The cages all opened to a pit in which the rotting, mauled bodies of those unfortunate enough to be captured lay.

Thinking I was going to be eliminating a nest of vampires, I entered the cave only to find cruelty and depravity common to the lawless and desperate. The cave is clear now, but within a week or so I am certain others will move in anyway. Such a waste of time.

I arrived at Ivarstead after nightfall and just in time to help the guards chase out a bear that decided on a late dinner in one of the farmers' fields.

Tomorrow morning I will visit the Greybeards and return their horn. Then I may return to Riften to close some business agreements there, then return to collecting the remaining pieces of Mehrune's Razor. Such is my plan, but I am sure something will occur to make everything utterly impossible once again.

Morrowind Day 59 - The Cavern of the Incarnate

12 Frost Fall

~~~

You would think taking a nap in House Dagoth's former stronghold would invite all sorts of nightmares, given what I have experienced from Dagoth Ur while asleep. But my brief rest was undisturbed. Sleep at home: Nightmares and attacks by monsters, sleep under Dagoth Ur's roof: peaceful sleep. I suppose stranger things have happened.

The Blight storm was still raging when I walked outside. Are the storms directly controlled by Dagoth Ur or are they a side-effect of the growing power within the Red Mountain? Whatever their origin, the storm lasted the entire day and I do wonder if it has any connection with the Ash Vampire I slew yesterday.

The walk back to the Urshilaku camp was dust-filled, but uneventful. Sul-Matuul was surprised to see me return, admitting that while he did think I would survive, he did not expect me to complete the task so soon. In bringing the three items before him, I have completed his personal test and he revealed what he knew of the third trial of the Nerevarine. 

The third trial really came in two parts: the first was Wisdom's Test, a simple puzzle in the form of a riddle. Solving it would lead me to the Cavern of the Incarnate, the second part of the trial. Decoding the riddle would provide directions. The riddle was:

the eye of the needle lies in the teeth of the wind

the mouth of the cave lies in the skin of the pearl

the dream is the door and the star is the key

Once I found the Cavern I was to acquire 'the moon and star' and bring it to Nibani. Sul-Matuul called the puzzle Wisdom's Test, but the wisdom was simply in asking the right people. Several of the Ashlanders were able to decode the riddle's lines and helpfully pointed me to the east. I was to travel along the coast until I saw two tall stone spires, the 'teeth of the wind', on either side of a small valley, which I guess is the 'eye of the needle'. 

The Blight storm reduced visibility to roughly three feet in front of me, but it did the same for everything else in the Ashlands. I walked right along the shore to maintain my direction and was trailed by several Dreugh certainly hoping I would slip and fall into the water. Even in the storm, the spires were pretty easy to locate, as they sat at the very end of the coast before the mountains separating the Ashlands from the eastern grasslands.

The valley did nothing to block the dust of the Blight storm and I was tempted to duck into a tomb I passed along the way, but it was starting to grow late and I did not want to have to walk back to camp at night during a Blight storm. 

Finding the door to the Cavern of the Incarnate was very easy, for the valley terminated at the entrance. I had been told the door would only open when Azura's star was visible, but my hands were barely visible thanks to the storm, so I tried pushing it open. If it was stuck I could simply wait a bit.

The door opened easily and I stepped inside the unusually cool air of the cavern. Immediately ahead of me was a very large and skillfully carved statue of the Daedric Prince Azura. Though clearly a Daedric shrine of some kind, it completely lacked the architecture of the other shrines and I felt at peace while I was there. I could see mummified bodies sitting around the shrine as I saw in the Urshilaku burial cavern, but they were not armed as the tribe's were. As I drew closer to the statue, I saw a ring floating within its cupped hands.

The ring was faced with a silver moon and a golden star, the symbols of Azura. Something in me felt compelled to take it and the world froze just as I wrapped my hand around it. Suddenly I was floating just above the Red Mountain, but the sky was clear and I could see the whole of Morrowind. Visions danced before my eyes and a voice exploded within my head. I will forever remember the words:

Nerevar reborn, Incarnate, your first three trials are finished, now two new trials lie before you. 

Seek the Ashlander Ashkhans and the Great House councilors. 

Four tribes must name you Nerevarine, three Houses must name you Hortator. 

My servant, Nibani Maesa, shall be your guide and when you are Hortator and Nerevarine, 

when you have stood before the False Gods and freed the Heart from its prison, 

heal my people and restore Morrowind. 

Do this for me and with my blessing.

...and then I felt something hit my hand and I was back in the cavern again, the ring within my grasp and the voice and visions completely gone. The voice was the same one that plagued my dreams while on the ship to Seyda Neen and it seems that Azura has singled me out to be the savior of the Dunmer people. I wish I knew more about Temple doctrine, but my short time there was spent sweeping floors more often than not. She's credited with creating the Khajiit and said by the Dunmer to be involved with their creation somehow, but more than that I do not know. 

When I turned to leave, I was quite startled by the ghost standing behind me. Contrary to the skeletal ghosts the Dunmer guard their tombs with, this one appeared as a young Dunmer woman. The spirit was friendly and called herself 'Peakstar', one of the failed Incarnates.

She had quite a list of titles to bequeath upon me: Incarnate, Moon-and-Star Reborn, Hortator, Nerevarine, Mourner of the Tribe Unmourned, and the Redeemer of the False Gods. I thought this odd, considering I was just told that I was not yet the Nerevarine nor Hortator, but I suppose I would be a bit out of it if my spirit had been stuck in the cave for who knows how many years. 

The spirit of Peakstar proved to be quite enlightening. The Moon-and-Star ring on my hand confirms that I am one of the incarnations of Nerevar, for anyone else would have been killed when they put the ring on. As the group of spirits in the cave would attest to, merely being Nerevar Reborn is no guarantee of success: Peakstar's run as Incarnate ended at the clawed hands of an Ash Vampire, the description of which matched the jeweled-head creature I had decapitated under Kogoruhn.

The Tribe Unmourned is House Dagoth and Peakstar advised that I pity the House rather than hate it, for the fall of Dagoth Ur came about only due to "my" instructions to guard the artifacts under Red Mountain. Following the Nerevar's instruction, Dagoth Ur defended the tools from the Tribunal, ultimately leading to the situation I find myself in now. I must say that I do not agree with Peakstar's view, for following that logic means that Peakstar herself is just as much to blame, having been the Incarnate at one time. Either way, it was interesting to hear.

The False Gods that the Incarnate is the redeemer of are the three of the Tribunal: Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil. They used the artifacts taken from Red Mountain to grant themselves Godhood and raised themselves up as the guardians of Morrowind, to the best of my understanding.

She conjured up a belt and pants from somewhere Beyond and gave them to me as gifts to assist me against Dagoth Ur. The belt is pretty much useless to me, but the pants have a levitating enchantment on them and will actually be useful...if I can get them altered to fit me. Any clothier should be able to help me.

The other spirits were briefer in their advice to me. The next I spoke to was named Ane Teria, who lived her life as a devout crusader for the Tribunal Temple. She was also something of an author and her writings were suppressed after her death, eventually becoming part of the Dissident Priest's hidden library, though I cannot remember if I read anything written by her. While she spent her life in faithful service to the Temple, she ignored the call of Azura and denied her role as the Nerevarine. She provided a book and her old mace.

Next was a sorcerer named Erur-Dan, who lived during Morrowind's surrender to the Empire. He wasted his life away on vengeance against the Imperials and eventually died in battle at Red Mountain, forever buried under the howling dust of the perpetual storm. His gifts were more appropriate for me, but still of limited use: an enchanted chitin spear and an enchanted bonemold cuirass.

Idrenie Nerothan was a thief Incarnate who fought against the Akaviri when they invaded Morrowind, an event I know absolutely nothing about, save for that it occurred a long time ago. She provided a high quality lock-pick and a thief's probe. She claimed to have worked behind the scenes against the Akaviri and learned only of the Nerevarine prophecy when the war drove her to seek refuge with the Ashland tribes. As for her fate, she would only say she died in Kogoruhn while trying to find treasure.

Perhaps the closest to success among the spirits was the former Ashkhan, Conoon Chodala. He led his tribe against the Akaviri which led to his peoples' deaths. He survived the war, making repeated raids into Red Mountain in an attempt to cleanse the horror from the land. In this he was successful, reclaiming many ruined fortresses in his day, but he did not heed the wise-women of the tribes and while he was marked as a savior, he craved only glory in battle, never becoming the Nerevarine. He offered his boots and a battle axe.

The final spirit was a cultured-sounding Dunmer named Hort Ledd. He claimed to have died four hundred years ago, a man of thought rather than action. He knew he was marked as the Incarnate, but he described himself with derision as a 'thinker, not a doer'. He likely died peacefully, having accomplished nothing. From him I received a book and a robe.

And that was my initiation rite into the group of the select few, and up until now, all Dunmer group of Incarnates. I felt it would be quite rude to dump their gifts on the floor, so I was forced to carry all of it out with me, as the spirits did not disappear as I was leaving. I would like to donate them to the Temple, but I gather I am no longer welcome within that institution. I suppose I could just store everything at home...should I ever find myself back there.

The Blight storm was still going strong when I left the cavern and I struggled against the wind all the way back to the camp. I arrived close to midnight, but Nibani had been waiting for my return. She was pleased to hear that everything matched what she saw in her dreams and my story affirmed that Azura has marked the part she is to play in the Prophecy.

She advised that I first be named Nerevarine by the Ashkhans of the four great tribes: the Urshilaku, the Ahemmusa, the Zainab, and the Erabenimsun, before attempting to be named Hortator by the Houses. To be named Nerevarine by the Urshilaku only requires that I ask it of from Sul-Matuul, but it is very early in the morning now and I need to rest. It can certainly wait until...later today.