Entry 51
Turdas, 20th of Sun's Dusk
Early this morning as she was in the Rift cleaning out a den of savage beasts for Aela, this one discovered a tower. Inside was a young witch, Illina, trying to escape. Her mother wanted a human sacrifice for a ritual, possibly to become a hag raven and her daughter could not continue to support the terrible things they were doing.
Instead of leaving, she asked for this one's help; she wished to put a stop to her mother's cruelty by killing her. Together, we climbed to the top of the tower and slew her mother. Though Illina was saddened, she believed we'd done the right thing. From the top of the tower, this one spotted a great wall on the mountain opposite the tower. Illina said it was a fort called Forelhost, once home to a dragon priest and the site of a great battle.
Khajiit mounted Frost and rode up the mountain where she discovered a 'captain' camped there, claiming he'd been sent by Galmer, Ulfric's right hand man, to recover a mask belonging to a powerful dragon priest. This one uses air quotes to describe him because…well, you'll see, no? Forelhost was the last remaining hold out of the remainders of the dragon cult! If this one were a historian, she would be having a fit, but she cares little for history. Vilkas had a fit instead. Inigo sighed as if to say, if we must go in, then fine...
According to a journal this one found inside, Skorm Snow-Strider, one of King Harold's men, had been leading the charge to drive the remaining Snow Elves from Skyrim, however they received reports of attacks in the area behind them and backtracked to Forelhost. There, they found many cultists had taken their own lives.
Trapped inside the fort, Snow-Strider's men drank from the well within and many of them were poisoned and died. The cultists killed themselves rather than surrender.
Snow-Strider withdrew from the ruins and left his journal in the hopes that in an age or two when the poison faded, someone might come along to make sure the cultists met their due fate. The journal mentioned a well and a key.
As we went further in, we found many dead bodies. Fresh ones. Stormcloak corpses and imperial legion corpses littered the areas. Those bodies were the first sign that something was not right with our captain outside. Why would he, a Stormcloak officer, let Imperials into the ruins? Vilkas believed we were being deceived. Khajiit knew so, but kept going. We would get the last laugh on our captain by taking the mask he wanted oh so badly for ourselves!
We went into the catacombs, found the key to the well, and began the descent. Further in, we found a room that chilled this one. The dragon cult truly took a no holds barred approach to making sure they were not killed or taken prisoner by their enemies.
In the burial chamber were herbs on either side of a ditch. Inside the ditch were very small bodies. They even killed their children rather than risk them being taken prisoner. When we saw the little bodies wrapped in linen, Inigo recoiled, pressing himself flat against the wall. "Gods. No. No. No, no, no zombie children, Gods, I couldn't take it..." Khajiit, too, could not wait to be out of this place. Some of the most powerful draugr she has fought were in Forelhost.
Khajiit killed the dragon priest Rahgot and retrieved his mask. It was a very fiery battle as he used a powerful fire staff, and at least five draugr deathlords came to his defense. Outside, Khajiit got a new word to add to Storm Call and below, she saw Captain Valmir impersonating an Imperial legion officer!
He was trying to convince an Imperial soldier to go inside. Khajiit killed him at once but unfortunately the soldier died as well. Disgusting. He just wished the mask for himself and was too cowardly to get it! Inigo put it perfectly as he wiped his blade, "Death suits him."
As we rested our haunches in Windhelm, this one got to thinking that perhaps she is forgetting something. A plan she wanted to act on. Ah, yes! The assassins that are always coming after her! Khajiit plans to do something about them and soon. There is a boy in Windhelm trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood. Perhaps if she pretends to be an assassin and does the dirty work, the Brotherhood may visit her. After all, she did steal their contract. A good plan, no? If it works.
Khajiit visited the Arentino boy. He had assembled a skeleton, a human heart, and some human flesh. He knelt before the body, surrounded by candles, and repeatedly stabbed the book from which he read the follow chant; "Sweet mother, sweet mother, send your child unto me for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear."
This one, Inigo and Vilkas watched with our jaws down to our knees. What a truly messed up child. The boy was grief stricken; his mother had died and he'd been sent to Honorhall Orphanage in Riften. He and the other children were mistreated by a woman ironically named Grelod the Kind, making him run away. He mistook this one for an assassin and was overjoyed. Though confused, this one went along with it and will set out for Honorhall shortly. If this will stop the flow of assassins trying to cut her throat on the road, she will do whatever is needed.
