The landmarks of Dementia are, by nature, dark and disturbing and unashamedly cruel. Such is the will of Sheogorath and such is the nature of his domain.
Countless years have withered the infamous Hill of Suicides into nothing more than stones and wet dirt. The purgatory of the damned is regularly emptied only for the spirits to reappear once again over time. All who take away their life within the realm of Sheogorath are trapped as ghosts doomed to wander the foggy hill forever until a selfless mortal recovers their skull and returns it to them, thereby freeing the soul. Great rewards await those who do, but the danger in doing so often ends with more death.
And despite its sinister role in the life and death of the citizens of the Aslyum's, it is also one of the safest places to rest even so far out in the wilds.
Elytra, the monstrous tiger-sized insects that infest the swamps and hills of Dementia, fear the place of punishment just as much as living mortals do.
Amity finds no fear in the haunted hills. The spirits only wader aimlessly and make no contact with the living soul amongst their ranks. She wandered for hours after escaping the Hunger only to wind up at the hill. For two days she has camped on the hill and taken the time to practice the art of Conjuration as she heals from her wounds and tries to find a way back to the main road so she can continue her journey.
With no map and no real sense of direction the youngest Blight finds herself lost. If only there were a way to speak with the ghosts, maybe then one would give the answer she seeks?
Until the dead speak she has passed the time forming lesser daedric spirits into various weak faux-animal shapes in preparation for summoning a greater one. Only truly summoned daedra are worthwhile as protection.
"Okay, Luz, get ready. I'm going to try and summon a real daedra."
What am I supposed to do? I'm in your head, remember?
She has never forgotten that fact; she talks that way to try and keep her humanity and sanity in check as best she can.
"You know what I mean! Okay... here we go!"
Amity raises her left hand in the air while the other holds her staff and her mind then becomes filled with the necessary magical formulas. An otherworldly heat pricks at her face and skin, the telltale marks of a mage about to suffer from the terminal rebound of daedric energies named Conjurer's Burn.
Sensing her imminent demise, she ends the ritual before her soul is torn asunder and lost in the seas of Oblivion. The remnants of daedric energy stored within her body fly from the tip of her staff in a brilliant and deadly display of purple light that soon dissipates into nothing. Her life saved and her energy spent, Amity collapses to the ground a panting mess for several long minutes.
I'm sorry, Amity. The voice of her dead friends comforts her, Maybe next time? I don't know though, I'm worried you're going to end up dead like these ghost if we keep trying!
She bashes an angry fist on the ground and groans angrily. Amity though she could master the art of Conjuration as easily as she can with her former Abomination homunculi, but it's just not the case! Without a teacher she fears she'll never be able to set a foot in the School let alone become skilled in it.
"I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong! I follow everything the book has written down but it's not enough. I'm missing something and I think the book is missing it too."
"Finally you're starting to figure it out!" Amity jumps up in surprise at the unexpected voice as spins around to identify it. The shade of what she suspects to be a robed High Elf leans idly against a small rock nearby with arms crossed and empty eyes examining her. "You might be able to summon a scamp in a month or two at this rate."
More voices fill the hill and Amity quickly realizes she has suddenly gained an ability to understand the once silent ghosts.
"What the-? Hey, I can hear you now! How did that happen so suddenly?!"
The Altmer shade perks up at the statement now much more interested in the Witch than before. He quickly approaches the teen and ushers her to keep her voice quiet.
"Quiet down, you fool! If they all figure out you can hear them they'll badger you until you leave! Hey, listen, you seem lost and in need of some Conjuration guidance. I can help. But you help me, I help you. Deal?"
Maybe he's legit? Luz ponders in Amity's mind, He can't actually do anything to us. I say hear him out.
Amity agrees with her mental companion. These are desperate ghosts with no physical attachments save for their bodies. They'd give up any hidden treasure just for the release of their half-life.
"I'm interested, but I want to know more about what's going on! How can I hear all these ghosts, and who even are you in the first place?"
"Inquisitive and demanding. You would've made a fine apprentice in the Summerset Isles." His eyes wander up and down her body like a hungry wolf, "Your flesh looks soft too. If I still had a body I think you would make a fine roast with sage and salt. Too bad I'm dead."
He shrugs lazily. Amity finds herself suddenly not so keen on helping the cannibal. Still, she can benefit from the elf's desperation for personal gain.
"The School of Conjuration shares many of the same principles and energies with necromancy. That mucked up summoning must've bound some of those energies to your soul and given you the ability to understand us spirits. I've quite forgotten my name, happens often when you die, but I still remember quite a bit about myself. I was once a great fisherman back home. After a nasty curse of bad luck from Orgnum, I was unable to catch anything for eighty four days until I caught a fifteen foot Marlin and dragged it back to shore all by myself! I came to the Shivering Isles to fish something greater than anything on Nirn, but there's nothing in the water! I heard rumors of a man who knows everything and went to him, but he confirmed my fears. Trapped here, I took my life to escape this hell, but the madgod wasn't through with me! ...I suppose my expertise in daedric summoning is more valuable than my fishing skills?"
Amity nods her head. A man killing himself because he can't fish is... frankly ridiculous but it's the Shivering Isles so she expects nothing normal. The elf fisherman sighs sadly, wishing more in his life appreciated the underwritten art of fishing.
"Oh very well! If you find my skull and return it to me on this hill I can transfer my knowledge of summoning my servant to you. It's a powerful Ogrim named Sh'rk, but don't let it fool you! Sh'rk is remarkably bright for his race and a valuable ally. I'll transfer his service to you, and to sweeten the deal you can have my map and potions in my bag left on my body!"
"This sounds like a great deal, but why is it so much in my favor? What do you get from giving up your servant and belongings like this?"
"Look at me! I'm already dead, and cursed by Sheogorath like this my magicka is stunted! Bring me my skull and you can exorcise my spirit to Aetherius with a small enough window of time for me to transfer some knowledge before I am gone. I'd give everything I can to be free from this torment!"
It doesn't sound too bad. Even if he doesn't give us the knowledge his body would still have the map... If he's telling the truth that is. I think it's our best shot!
It's her only chance and therefore the best chance Amity has of finding her way to New Sheoth. And if along the way on their sidequest she earns a replacement for her Abomination then it was a detour worthwhile.
"Fine, I'll help you out. Where am I supposed to find your skull, and how will I even know if it's yours in the first place?! I passed by about twenty skeletons walking up this hill in the first place."
"Trust me, you'll know mine. I tripped and cracked my skull as a youngster, left a nice long crack in the back of my skull. Travel north until you see massive stone ruins. You can't miss them! In the center is a massive tree and underneath the roots is tunnel into the buried city. It's called Knifepoint Hollow and it's where I took my life. Take care while you're there. A mysterious being dwells there and he'll tell you things that you wouldn't like to hear. Trust me, it's how I ended up like this."
The spectral fisher-mage points Amity in the direction of the ruins and turns back to shamble like the rest of the damned spirits. She thinks on his warning, wondering how the supposed 'being' could be so dangerous. The Altmer took his own life, it's how he wound up on the hill. How does this being come into play?
Midday approaches and the young Witch swiftly begins her journey to Knifepoint Hollow. Better to travel while the she still has the light to see her destination from afar.
Spotting the ruins of the once mighty city was easy. Builders of the past placed the great stone foundations center in the island and in a basin that, while prone to flooding, would easily be seen by anyone miles away.
Once mighty with great grey walls and perfect roads and perfect construction the ruins are such no more. Time and catastrophe have brought the city lower than the dirt as much of it is hidden under murky swamp water; only the tallest foundations remain with their great structures left within the minds of three beings all of whom will never speak the truth of the catastrophe to no one.
True to his word, center in the expansive ruins is a single massive tree with swollen fungal pods. It sits atop what was the largest structure like a cancer celebrating its victory. Perhaps the madgod placed it there to remind some enemies unknown of their sound defeat millennia ago? The sight makes the Witch's skin crawl for some reason.
Amity walks along a mossy overgrown street that once towered fifty feet above the main ground and approaches the large tree. Looking down in the water she only sees vague shadows resembling building. Things move within the water with more than one shadow in the water stopping near her position and following her down the path.
Whatever creatures they may be they stay within their domain and scatter as the path touches the great island of dirt and stone that surrounds the tree and corpse of the largest structure.
The roots of the mountainous tree are lifted out of the ground and wound tightly throughout every crack and crevice of the ruins. Amity's mind once again likens it to a cancerous growth. A path of stamped grass leads into an opening under the main stalk. Traveling through the roots leads her into a dark tunnel of stinky dirt with stone bricks visibly stuck inside.
She swallows a lump in her throat and summons a companion of harmless white light to follow over her right shoulder. The Magelight flutters like a hummingbird and illuminates the deep recesses of the tunnel.
After several minutes of twisting around corners in the darkness the tunnel finally leads into a walkway overlooking a great chamber. Her light only reveals the roof above her head and a walkway twenty feet to either side of her that looks down into a deep and dark abyss. The drop seems to travel down forever but she knows better.
Amity puts extra magicka into her light and it shines brighter like a star in the sky. Finally the whole chamber is reveal and the abyss is now no more than four stories to the bottom floor.
Her walkway travels all the way around the massive underground room that stretches four hundred feet on either side in a massive and perfect square. Corridors shoot off every twenty feet into parts unknown, at the opposite end attached to the walkway is a large staircase zig-zagging down to the very bottom.
Wow... even if it's kind of boring design its still massive in scale. What do you think they used this space for? Was it storage of some kind?
"I think you're right... the bottom floor there has grooves in it that they probably laid foundation for another wooden structure that filled this space. It all must've rotted away in time. Let's check the bottom... maybe that's where his body is?"
It's a morbid thought but all she has to follow. Hindsight always has the best answers and Amity now curses her past self for not clarifying where the body would be exactly.
No ghouls, demons or and sort of thing wishing for her death jumped from the shadows as she made her way around to the staircase. Her steps echo with each one as she makes her way down the winding staircase. Surely by now anything evil will have heard her? Not that she can help it, of course, the very design of the room seems to be partially built around carrying sound easily.
The very bottom floor of the strange hall was flooded with a thin layer of dank water only and inch or so deep. Only one dark pathway is still open on the opposite end of the stone steps; two more paths once existed to her left and right but they collapsed long ago and can no longer be used.
Logically, if she were some desperate fisherman then the Altmer mage likely traveled this way.
Amity travels down the sole available pathway and crinkles her nose in disgust as a foul stench wafts past her. She would compare it to a mixture of sour milk and honey given the oddly sweet afternote. Roots and moss grow between many of the bricks until the carefully carved stone is entirely replaced by compressed dirt, roots and hanging strands of moss.
Soon after the dirt and moss is replaced by something organic that feels almost like wood. Now Amity imagines she's walking through a giant wooden vein of some sort, and given the size of the tree growing on top of the ruins it's entirely possible she's inside of it. Natural bioluminescent fungi grow inside the root tunnel, eliminating the need for her light spell.
Ugh, what's that smell? It smells like farm animals in here, but worse!
"It smells like chemicals too! My dad's garden used to have these tiny bugs that would spray a stinky juice on you that smells just like this Wait a second... bugs?"
Amity steps into a large chamber populated with massive fungal stalks ten feet high and flooded ankle deep with water. From cutouts in the upper walls of the chamber six massive insect creatures larger than a tiger crawl down and slowly stalk towards her.
The insects look like a mix between a spider and praying mantis given their swollen abdomens and powerful, spiked raptorial legs that look sharp and strong enough to cut her in half!
"Crap, Elytra! Luz, what did the journal say about their weaknesses?!"
Burn it! Burn it with hellfire! Those things are creepy and gross!
"...Good enough for me!"
Amity waves a hand in front of her and a wall of fire forms a barrier that burns atop the water and halts the Elytra's advance. Something fast approaches from behind her and she barely hears it and dodges a deadly bearhug from a seventh Elytra that ambushes from behind.
The insects mandibles click and hiss angrily as it swipes for her knees, her natural athleticism kicks in and she deftly jumps over the spiked limb and saves her legs from being cut in half. Before she can launch a deadly spell, the Elytra jumps forward and tries to gore her with its crooked horns.
She blocks the horns with her staff but it becomes entangled, and with great strength the insect throws her back and separates the staff from her hands.
Her body was mostly unharmed as it passed through her wall of flame, but with no gloves her hands suffer from minor, yet very painful burns.
Amity lands in the cold, smelly water which feels nice on her singed hands, but the furiously splashing water reminds her she still has the first six Elytra to handle. Quickly she throws herself forward as far as she can and dodges being impaled by one of their clawed limbs.
A jet of fire bursts from her hands and the attacking insect is lit aflame. Undaunted by their quickly dying companion, the five other Elytra rush to tear her body to shreds.
The young Witch practically claws herself back to stand, cursing the relatively deep water for making her so slow and clumsy.
Two balls of fire launch from her extended hands and incinerate two of the Elytra. Three down, four to go. The other three push past the corpses but their haste and aggression gets the better of them and they fumble and trip over themselves, giving Amity a chance to turn the fight in her favor. She throws two more fire balls and takes down two more bugs. The final of the six tumbles over the bodies but falls short and misses goring her with its limbs.
Amity quickly frees her ebony dagger free from its sheath and drives it all the way down into the head of the monstrous bug. It's body twitches and shakes, and with a feral cry she yanks her weapon downward and splits the head in half top down. Six down... one to go.
Her chest heaves as she breaths heavily. The dagger in her hand shakes in pain but she doesn't notice, the adrenaline coursing through her veins makes her feel more alive than ever regardless of the injuries she endures.
The wall of fire from earlier has finally burnt out, but the Elytra that ambushed her is no where to be seen. Her feet stomp through the water as she runs back to the tunnel she arrived from. Slipping into the darkness Amity sees the final bug trying to flee, no doubt sensing her to no longer be a prey item and not worth the risk.
There is no escape.
A demented smile crosses her face and she reaches down and recovers her staff. She hums a soft tune her mother used to sing for her when she was little and aims her staff down the tunnel. A furious bolt of thunder flies from her staff and strikes the Elytra. The creatures body withstands the powerful magic for merely seconds before exploding in a shower of slime and carapace.
Content with her work, Amity smiles cheerfully and returns to exploring the ruins and natural tunnels. Luz, her ever faithful companion, makes no comment on her best friend's behavior. All the voice trapped in the Blight's head can do is hope her friend makes it home soon before she finds the 'thrill' of death too intoxicating.
The chamber from before leads into another tunnel that looped through a few more easily dispatched Elytra nests until it eventually broke back into another section of the primary ruins. It seems like the Elytra over time have dug around collapsed sections and hollowed out large chambers to use as natural traps for curious wanderers as wells as using them for nesting and resting.
Whomever built Knifepoint Hollow in the long forgotten past had a very apparent love for large chambers. The Elytra tunnels lead into another great chamber like before only this one was longer and seemed to be some sort of massive lounging area. Great circular stone tables fill up much of the central space within the chamber with plenty of empty space that Amity imagines was once filled with elaborate decorations and furnishing.
This place almost makes me feel... sorta sad, you know? So many people must've lived here long ago only for stone to survive. Dios mio, what I wouldn't give for a time machine to be able to see what this place was like in its glory days!
Amity agrees with Luz. Even if the structure itself is fairly boring, the sheer scale of it is massive and awe inspiring. Whatever the people were up to here originally she'll never know, but the mystery of it releases her childlike sense of wonder and makes her mind buzz with fun hypotheticals as to the mysteries of Knifepoint Hollow!
"Hold on... Luz, look! The right wall at the far end!"
At the far end of the hall and cut into the right of the wall is very dim light, light that Amity is not making and not the same light from the luminescent fungi. There's someone else here!
No way...! Do you think it might be the ghost's camp or something? Maybe that's where his body is? Oh god, I hope there isn't... a mess or anything, I don't think I could stomach it!
"Don't you dare throw up in my brain!"
Amity ponders on the possibility of the light being the Altmer's camp, but she just doesn't think that's the case. She's looking for a skull which implies the body has become a skeleton and she simply can't believe any fire would burn that long.
"I guess there's only one way to find out what that light is."
She slowly approaches the section of the wall where the light comes from with her staff poised to strike. Her heart beats rapidly the closer she gets; for some strange reason she feels incredibly afraid. It's not danger fear, however, but a different kind that she just can't explain.
Coming around the corner the cutout in the wall leads to a simple square room with a chair, a few candles and a simple man sat in the chair.
And she means 'simple man' literally. He's not a corpse, but for a completely unexpected person he's just so... unremarkable. His skin is pale and wrinkled with heavy bags under his eyes, his hair is a dull grey and he's dressed in simple grey robes with simple leather moccasins on his feet. Even his eyes are grey, dull and lifeless. Looking into them reminds Amity of her father, a man legendary for a face and stare as empty as a brick wall.
He's just so... boring it makes her heart feel empty for some reason. She feels like a red brick wall has more personality than this strange man.
"You're here just as I predicted," His voice almost seems more dead than the ghosts from before, "And I know what you've come here for as well. Your prize awaits you in the next room at the bottom of another great chamber where the elf leapt to his death. I had known, of course, what his actions and yours would be long before any other. This day and all others to come next are not unknown to me."
Amity squints at the stranger. He's completely harmless, but something about his presence makes her feel like she's talking to something more than a simple human.
"What are you talking about, you predicted I would be here? Sorry if I say that I don't believe you on anything. Now who are you and why are you really here?!"
"Spirited, how inconsequential as we all are. I am Dyus of Mytheria and I wait here for the day Lord Jyggalag frees me from this place. You stand in the toppled ruins of the Great Library I once oversaw long before your ancestors found the Titan. I was imprisoned by your master for not even the madgod could bring himself to destroy the knowledge that I posses. All events have been predicted long before they occurred and were stored within these halls. The Great Library was the height of deductive reasoning until Sheogorath destroyed it all as the abomination he chose to see it as. Now only myself and my Lord remain."
Amity's mind churns with curiosity and confusion all at the same time. This Dyus is simultaneously boring and interesting mystery. As suspicious and paranoid as she is, Amity feels like every word the dull man speaks is the truth.
"So I was right, there was some kind of war or cataclysm that destroyed the ancient civilization that was here before everyone else."
"You're only partially correct, as I expected. There were many 'wars' as you so temerariously state. The Shivering Isles were perpetuated by a cycle of chaos and order for many kalpa until the newest incarnation of madness claimed the throne and freed Lord Jyggalag and ended it all. I'll be busy from now on. In another few years a Dunmer will come to me and soon after and defeat the Prince of Madness with the very same Memory Wand you'll hand over to him before then. Fate does so like it's stories."
"I don't- I don't understand what's happening or what you're saying. I only came here to get a skull and a map, not have my mind ripped open and destroyed!"
Dyus raises an eyebrow merely by a few millimeters, "You're still unaware? This is the second time I've been wrong now, I'll have to adjust my calculations again it seems. We have nothing more to discuss. Recover your treasure and leave me be."
Amity gives the librarian once last suspicious glance before leaving him and venturing into an adjacent room to see if Dyus was telling the truth. Sure enough, at the bottom of another great chamber is a pile of bones with a skull that has a fracture and the back of the scalp. He was telling the truth after all. Close to the body is a ruined satchel bag with a mostly intact map of the Shivering Isles. Knifepoint Hollow is marked on the map, and given the distance between it and the gates, Amity estimates she only has a day's walk to New Sheoth from the Hill of Suicides.
She's almost there!
Look at that, we're almost to the city! Let's get this skull back to the fisherman... fisherelf? Whatever, let's just get that skull back and get your reward! I wonder what an Ogrim looks like?
"You're back!" Obviously the Altmer ghost wasn't expecting Amity to survive Knifepoint Hollow, "Did you run into that nasty Imperial, Dyus? When he told me I'd never catch a great fish again I was so distraught I acted rashly and threw myself over the edge of that chamber! Did you find my skull and the map?"
Amity fishes (shut up!) both items from her bag and presents them to the mage. "You could've warned me about Dyus! The things he had to say... they're still on my mind. I really don't know how to process any of it! My heart feels empty... like nothing I do matters!"
"That's the effect he has on you. Just forget about it, it's for the best, trust me. Hand over the skull so I can move on, but ready yourself! Instantaneous thought transfer gives nasty headaches!"
She holds the skull out, expecting it to drop through the specters hands, but to her surprise the High Elf actually takes the skull from her and holds it himself. The skull in his hands burst into blue ghostly fire that consumes it into nothing, and soon after the elf sighs in relief and begins vanishing into thin air.
"Hey, what about our deal?!" Just as the ghost vanishes Amity is suddenly taken by a great, pounding pain in her skull. Her eyes widen as new knowledge suddenly just rushes into her mind. The experience is painful, indescribable in detail but at the least incredibly euphoric. Almost like an epiphany, but far greater.
The gap in knowledge she was missing for her Conjuration is filled, and now she knows specifically what daedra she wants instead of summoning something at random. Amity raises her hand in the air, and a cold tingling feeling works its way from her feet and into her arm. From her open palm purple energy flies out and opens a portal into another realm of Oblivion in front of her.
After less than a second a massive, lumbering creature vaguely shaped like a gigantic portly ogre appears in front of her. The beast is easily over nine feet tall and leers down at her with a grim expression. The skin of the Ogrim is a mossy green with large plates of heavy cuticles covering its arms and massive belly. Thick black plates of pointy, gothic metal covers the daedra's breasts, arms and thankfully also its groin. The head of the beast is humanoid, but more ogre-ish with two large horns like a goat sticking out of its scalp with dozens of tinier horns surrounding them. It's body is completely hairless, and overall it almost seems more reptilian than mammalian given the traits, not that those definitions would ever truly apply to something from a separate reality completely.
"You... new master? New master tiny... and weak. Sh'rk protect new master. But Sh'rk want payment. We make deal!"
Sh'rk's voice is deep and gravelly, almost like it has pounds of jagged rocks stuck in its gullet. Nervous sweat drips down Amity's face as her mind wanders to all of the horrible possibilities of what a daedra could want as payment for service. Does it want souls? Does it want her soul, or perhaps the souls of other people?!
"Give Sh'rk wine... strong wine and food... then Sh'rk be good friend until tiny and weak die."
It just wants... food and alcohol? The booze part might be kinda hard since we're underage, maybe the food too given how fat he is! Still, I think we could pull it off and keep him happy. If he ever gets too much then it's not like you're required to summon him ever!
Luz makes a good point. Summoning daedra, most mages conjurer a specific race and the individual they get is randomly pulled from some realm every time. Summoning Sh'rk is different in that the spell she uses summons him and only him, but the principles could be used to summon a different daedra and not have to worry about feeding a needy Ogrim.
However... having a loyal Daedra as a companion possesses benefits. Trust. Some sense of loyalty. And best of all it gives the Ogrim a certain desire to strive for that would hopefully make it more effective in combat. The promise of fulfilled desires theoretically will make Sh'rk more effective than a randomly summoned different Ogrim.
"Very well... I agree to your terms, Sh'rk! I have no food on me right now, but when I get to New Sheoth I promise to buy you a big meal and wine. I'll summon you when it's appropriate."
The Ogrim accepts immediately. Even though Sh'rk is smarter than others of his kind, he's still quite dim and makes up his mind far easier than anyone should.
"Sh'rk wait... Sh'rk good at waiting. Call and Sh'rk will smash baddies to itty-bitty-bits!"
Amity dismisses Sh'rk back to his realm of Oblivion and sighs deeply after he's gone. "I can't believe I just made a deal with a daedra! At least it doesn't want me to sacrifice babies or something!"
Yeah, no kidding! Even though he was kinda ugly... I don't know, Sh'rk was kinda cute in a way. He's almost like a kid who wants candy! Only, the kid is nine feet tall, weighs a short ton and wants to eat and get shitfaced instead... Now that I say that I think we may have gotten in a bit over our heads.
"Maybe. We'll just have to wait and see. The sun's still up so let's get moving. Titan, what're we doin' in tha' swamp?!"
Amity, what the heck was that?
"I'm not sure, something just came over me..."