Chapter 39: Exploring Yngol Barrow
[24thof First Seed – 7thof Rain's Hand 4E 202]
Back at the college, we continued to work on our magicka and spellcasting. Before meeting T'mara, I had already been able to get my restoration magic skill up to Adept level, and I wanted to try to get to Expert level. Both the Dragonborn business and other adventuring we were getting into had a risk of getting one of us injured from time to time, and I was sure that better healing capability was a very good idea. In addition, I hoped to be able to make at least some progress in all other schools of magic.
T'mara had similar goals. She wanted to improve her Restoration capabilities as well, but also intended to get better at Destruction. While she had some Shouts at her command, those always needed some time in between, so that filling the required 'cooling' time with destruction spells seemed to be a good idea. In addition to that she needed advice and training in Conjuration, as she wanted to find out how to conjure her own familiar. Although that spell was already available at Novice level, she had not managed to successfully cast it yet, which made her quite unhappy.
I joined my wife for a few days taking lessons with Phinis Gestor, a Breton mage and local expert on Conjuration. He helped us and some other students along in improving our Conjuration magic, but he also pointed out: "As you may know, the Conjuration school of magic is more than literally 'conjuring' something, like a familiar. On higher levels there are 'reanimate' spells, and there is 'soul trap'. In order to not disturb people, please also contain your summons to the College grounds. The locals do not need to be agitated further by atronachs roaming their town. The summoning of undead is even less advisable outside of the College."
Hearing that, one student asked: "Summoning undead isn't frowned upon?"
Phines explained: "By Sheor, no. Those archaic policies died out with the Mages Guild, and were never enforced here. Necromancy, as any other type of magic, is a tool to be used. Of course, non-mages may not see it that way, so we don't go around flaunting it."
After some general lecturing, Phinis told us that the 'Conjure Familiar' spell was one of the basic ones in the school of Conjuration magic, and that it needed only a sufficient pool of magicka, knowledge of the spell, and quite some practice. He offered everyone not knowing the spell yet to learn from a spell tome he handed out for free. At that time, he was curious to see who of us could already conjure a familiar. A couple of students demonstrated theirs, which was a dog like creature for one and something like a larger skeever for the other, and then I showed mine. When Pammy materialized, everybody was in awe, including the teacher. Once I had introduced my familiar to the group, Phinis asked:
"Timotheus, do you know why your familiar happens to be a creature similar to a Pahmer, and how long will she stay with you once summoned?"
I gladly answered: "I spent most of my childhood and youth in Cyrodiil, but my parents and I occasionally traveled to some close-by regions in Elsweyr, such as Riverhold. The Pahmer and Alfiq I saw there entered my dreams when I was a kid; I was in awe of them and admired them and asked my parents if I could have as a pet, which was declined. I believe that my dreams about Pahmer must have influenced me a lot when I learned to summon a familiar later on, during my first time at the college here as a student. Since I have known to summon her, I have done this so many times over the last years, and almost constantly when traveling, specifically to guard my sleep. Since a year ago or so I can summon her in the evening and she will still be there when I wake up."
Phinis nodded and commented: "This is an excellent summon duration time, which can only be achieved by lots of practice. Most familiars only stay for a few minutes when summoned first, but diligent practice can extend that time a lot. Familiars can also be a great help to mages in fights, against creatures of the wild or bandits."
Another student asked: "If one does not have a familiar yet, what kind of animal can it be?"
Phinis replied: "It can be almost anything. I mean, it is somewhat unlikely that your familiar is, let's say, a slaughterfish, but maybe even that makes sense for an Argonian living close to the sea?"
A few students laughed. At that time I took my leave from the lesson, hoping that my wife might be able to make some progress and summon her own familiar within a few days. I had plans to visit the Jarl again, and thus walked down into town. When entering the longhouse, I could hear the Jarl talking to his son:
"Eirid says the mages at the College are nice people, but you said they're bad."
"Eirid's a little girl who doesn't understand that they're responsible for destroying our home."
"Why did they do that? Why would they be so evil?"
"Because they don't care about you or I, cub. They think they're better than all of us, and that we can just be thrown away."
"I hate them."
"That's my boy."
I certainly did not approve, but knew better than to interfere at this time and thus patiently waited until the conversation was over before I approached the Jarl. When I carefully indicated that I was willing to do some work for him, he replied:
"Winterhold has lost much of its history, and with that much of its power. I aim to change that. I've heard rumors of the resting place of the Helm of Winterhold, the very same helm that Jarl Hanse wore in the First Era. Hanse was in line to be High King of Skyrim, you know. Having that might get the ear of the other Holds and give me some authority."
The Jarl added that the artifact was supposedly to be found in a place called 'Yngol Barrow', but guarded and not easy to get. I nodded, promised to have a look when I had time, and turned to leave. On my way back I stopped by at Birna's shop, browsed her wares, and mentioned that I'd go to 'Yngol Barrow' soon to get an artifact. When she heard the name, she looked at me, showed me an artifact she called 'Coral Claw', and said:
"I once made a bad deal related to that barrow. A man said that this claw here was worth more than its weight in gold if I took it back there. Something about placing it back in Yngol's chamber, I don't know. What was I thinking? Even if it were true, I'm not setting foot in some ancient tomb, filled with who knows what."
"Well", I replied, "as I will go there anyway, I could look into it for you."
"I don't even care any more." she said. "You want to check it out? Fine. I'll sell you the thing for fifty gold, and then it's your problem."
I nodded: "I'll take the claw for 50 gold."
She handed it over: "Fine, here you go. You get killed on account of this thing, it's not my fault. Got it? But, I suppose, if it does actually turn out to be worth something, let me know, will you?"
I gladly promised that I would do that.
On the next day I told my wife that I would like to visit 'Yngol Barrow' sooner or later, for the dual purpose of retrieving an artifact for the Jarl of Winterhold and finding out if there was a secret related to the Coral Claw. We looked at our map and located the place northeast of Windhelm, close to the coast. While pondering options to get there, I had an idea: "T'mara, what about I talk to Tolfdir and suggest that we make an excursion with all students, so that they can practice some of the spells both while getting there and in the barrow?" My wife liked the idea, and I went off to search for Tolfdir. As he was just finishing a lesson, I had to wait for a couple of minutes, and then I told him:
"Tolfdir, would you agree that it is about time that the students get outside of the college for a few days and get some real life experience?"
Tolfdir thought about it and replied: "Well, we had the trip to Saarthal a few weeks ago, but I guess that another excursion would not hurt. Do you have something specific in mind?"
I nodded and replied: "Yes, indeed, I do. For various reasons I plan to enter 'Yngol Barrow', which is located southeast of here in Eastmarch hold, across the Yorgrim River. While I could do this just with my wife, I wonder if you wouldn't want to come with us together with the students. The three of us should be enough for protection of the students, and maybe we could take both the three new students and the previous class with us? They could train proper behavior both in open space, on the snow and ice while we get there, and in a closed environment in the barrow itself. What do you think?"
Tolfdir seemed to like the idea now and said: "Let me check with the Arch-Mage, but so far I like the idea!"
A couple of hours later Tolfdir came back and announced that the Arch-Mage had approved, and that all six students together with him, my wife and myself would embark on this excursion starting day after tomorrow. Everybody was going to take a sleeping bag and some supplies, but we did not need tents, as we should be able to get there in less than one day.
T'mara and I spent one more day attending a couple of lessons and practicing spells, and then the day of the excursion had come. A group of curious students were lead outside in the morning, and I explained that we were first going to follow the road, passing 'Whistling Mine', and later on turn eastwards, just before reaching 'Stillborn Cave'. Tolfdir advised the students to stay together and pay attention to the environment; T'mara added that we were likely to encounter wolves, bears, bandits, and other dangerous creatures. Indeed, right after leaving the city, a couple of snow bears could be seen in the distance, close to the road, and they had not yet detected us. Tolfdir asked if any of the students knew a proper spell to attack them.
J'zargo mentioned that a fire spell should be working well against them, and I nodded. I encouraged him: "J'zargo, why don't you and I sneak ahead and cast fireblasts at them; T'mara and Tolfdir can protect the others if they get past us. Please attack the left bear and I take the one to the right."
The Khajiit nodded, and we sneaked ahead. When we got close enough, I nodded to my companion, and he started to shoot fireballs at one of the bears, whereas I attacked the other one. It turned out that J'zargos's fireblasts were quite powerful, even stronger than mine, and the bears did not even get close to us before they succumbed to the heat.
Some of the students had watched a little timidly, and I realized that not all of them would bravely encounter a bear on their own. Maybe I should look for smaller prey, like a wolf? As if ordered, a pack of ice wolves were lingering on the road, not far from the mine. Before they had noticed us, I asked who might volunteer to attack, adding that distance weapons line bows and crossbows would be as good as spells. Rundi's frost magic would not help against ice wolves, but Yisra, Rundi, and Brelyna volunteered to cast spells. T'mara and I took them forward a little and told them to start casting as soon as the first arrow from my wife's bow and the first bolt from my crossbow had hit their target. This was achieved within seconds, and the three students blasted away. However, it turned out that hitting moving targets was much more difficult that the stationary wards they had practiced with at the college, and most blasts missed. Nonetheless, only two wolves got close to us, and both T'mara and I finished them off with our sword and axe.
After the fight was over and we talked about it all together, Tolfdir looked at me for comments and I summarized: "You have all seen that a combination of spells and weapons can work quite well. Casting fireballs onto a stationary target is one thing, but hitting a moving ice wolf is much more difficult. If you encounter a pack, you can hut a few of them, but the others will try to get you. Having a close distance weapon like a sword or at least a dagger, can save your life after all. Maybe we should offer some weapons training at the college as well, for those who think that this could be good for them."
We passed the mine and followed the road, until a side path forked off to the east. It led us onto ice and snow, and progress was slower now. A lot of animals kept their distance when seeing such a large group of people, and only a couple of ice wraiths tried to molest us. Most students got a chance to attack them, and they found out again that hitting the moving targets was tricky. A couple of students got chilblains from the encounter, which other students were quick to heal.
About halfway to the coast the path ended and we had to search for our way forward. We moved directly east where I knew we would be able to descend down to the coast, and close to the coast a snowy saber cat stood in our way. This time the students with frost spells got to attack, and they managed to slay the single beast before it got too close. Right on the coast, though, a small group of necromancers and pyromancers approached, and as they started to attack, mainly with fireblasts, Tolfdir shouted "Wards up everybody!" The students were quick to either do that or duck behind rocks, but they were unsure on how to counter the attack. After quite a few fireballs however the hostile mages mostly ran out of magicka, and I demonstrated how to quickly look over a rock, send my own fireball, and duck again. Some students followed that example, and soon the enemies were in trouble. More fireballs and a few bolts from my side killed the first one, and then I sent Pammy forward to clean up. A few necromancers had some high level robes and lots of septims on them, which we happily collected.
My summary to the students this time was: "You see, when people cast spells a lot, you better either hide behind good cover or raise a ward. If your magicka pool is good enough, you may be able to wait until the enemies run out of magicka and do your own attack then. If you run out of magicka yourself, it does not hurt at all to have other weapons at your disposal, and this includes your familiar. Also better keep in mind that wards protect well against spells, but not against arrows and such."
As we were at the coast now, I pointed out the location of the barrow, located close to the coast on the other side of the inlet. Asking the group if one had an idea how to get across, Onmund pointed out: "I prefer to not get wet in the icy water. A little south of here I can see some floating ice; maybe this is enough to pass across?"
We agreed and walked south a little, and indeed it seemed possible to walk across ice to a small island and from there to the other side. Some students hesitated, but I promised to air-dry everybody who got wet by accident with my low power fire spell, as I had done before at other opportunities. As it happened, J'zargo was not careful enough close to the other side, and he plunged into the cold water when a small ice float he stepped on suddenly moved and tilted. We got him out in no time and I used my low power fire spell on him.
Close to where we had crossed the water, a path with a few steps lead up to Yngol Barrow. Next to the entrance we found the book 'Yngol and the Sea-Ghosts', and it hinted that Yngol was related to Ysgramor and was with him initially, but perished in a fight against sea-ghosts. The book claimed that Yngol and his mates were the first 'Children of the Sky' to be killed in Tamriel.
We preferred to not camp outside in the cold, but entered the barrow right away. Inside we had to follow some ice tunnels and pass some draugrs before we stepped into a larger room with one of those Nordic puzzle doors. Tolfdir, T'mara and I decided that this was good enough for today and told the students that we would set up camp here, once we had moved the body of a dead adventurer aside. Apparently, the guy had failed in solving the puzzle. Everybody got their sleeping bags out, I summoned Pammy, and after supper we all retired. Bran joined Pammy in guarding our sleep.
On the next morning we looked at the puzzle in the room, and after breakfast everybody was encouraged to think about it. For sometime we were all unsure on how to approach it, as we could not find clear visual references as we had seen in other places, but one of the students checked on the dead adventurer again and found a book. It turned out that the man had been some kind of scholar, and we had written notes on the barrow into a book titled 'Notes on Yngol Barrow'. The section related to the puzzle was like this:
Man in his throne, so should he be
Whale in the Sea, so should he be
Eagle in Sun's Sky, so should he be
Snake in the weed, so should he be
It took us some time to figure it out, but we finally managed, as a result of good teamwork. The door which opened soon led us to a larger portal which required the coral claw I had purchased earlier in Winterhold. Of course I used the opportunity to teach the students about the claw and how the symbols on it provided the proper position of the three rings in the door.
Not long after opening the claw door we reached what looked like the final room with probably the most challenging enemies. I reminded the students to be extra careful; the archers were placed back at the door, and Tolfdir, T'mara and I proceeded carefully, with students behind us, spells ready in their hands or paws. A kind of sarcophagus, placed close the center of the big room, had our special attention. It wouldn't be the first time that a dangerous draugr or so would rise from it as soon as we were close. In fact, we were not disappointed, and a dragon priest rose from the center as soon as we had closed about half of the distance. While he was attacked immediately with arrows and fireballs, this had not much of an effect, and he came close very quickly. T'mara and I used our swords from both sides, and the dragon priest attacked with a spell of his own. It wasn't the usual fire or frost blast, but I felt my health and stamina being drained. This did not concern me too much as I knew that I had quite some reserves on both, and I kept attacking. However, I must have underestimated the dragon priest's spell power, and I also failed to noticed that the spell was mainly directed at me. Soon I felt a little dizzy, so that the dragon priest was able to place a solid hit with his axe against my helmet; due to the drain effect I fell down and fainted.
When I came to my senses again, T'mara had my head in her lap, using her left paw to heal me, and I could hear her words of instructions to the students: "… is a perfect example of somebody being too bold, ignoring spell effects and going to continue the fight rather than retreating and healing. You see that even an experienced fighter can make mistakes. How could we have done the attack better?"
J'zargo immediately commented: "We need to improve on our destruction spells and expertise so that we can deal more damage in less time! Once this one had full mastery of Expert level destruction, dragon priests will no longer be a problem!"
T'mara smiled: "Yes, that too. But what else?"
Brelyna suggested: "We could have attacked from more different directions, so that the dragon priest would have only been able to cast his spell on one of us at a time. The person being targeted could have retreated and healed, in order to join the fight later again."
My wife nodded: "Yes, that's about my opinion, too. Anything else?"
Tolfdir added, looking at me with a smirk on his face: "A person targeted by such a powerful spell could also counter by stepping back for a moment and drinking proper potions."
I was fully awake again now and concluded: "Yes, I have noticed that I acted like a fool. Well, I hope that I could serve as a bad example at least!"
Almost everybody laughed, and my wife gave me a long hot kiss, ignoring the consequent hoots and shouts provided by some students.
Finally, we searched for loot, and among other stuff we located the Helm of Winterhold, the artifact the Jarl was looking for. Getting out of the barrow was easier than getting in, once we found the hidden back door.
