The College of Winterhold. Skyrim
While I'd only been for a few days I was pleased with the amount of progress I'd made. I didn't have a way of measuring my adaptation to this world's magic outside of my gut feeling, however, I felt as if I was progressing faster than I had when in the Wizarding World. Being here at the college where there was so much magical energy and so many people using it was speeding up I felt sure.
Also just last night, I'd started a magical fire at the Thalmor embassy so that the Nazis elves would be distracted for a while looking into that and wondering how some enemy had so easily snuck inside their well-defended embassy. I hoped that they'd think it was an inside job and investigate their own people. Meaning they'd have less attention for everyone else.
Remembering how the mixture Val had given me began to bubble when I added the seed to the mixture she'd prepared, made me smile. I'd teleported some distance away and I'd been impressed by how quickly the smoke appeared and the shouting of panicking elves had put a smile on my face.
I was by no means a sadistic person it was just that there was something very pleasing about screwing with the Thalmor.
"Can anyone tell me what spell is best for defeating a ward?" asked Tolfdir.
Since I'd had my magical shield destroyed by a certain kind of spell I knew exactly what spell could be used to defeat magical defences.
"Through personal experience, I've found that lightning-based attacks are effective against wards" I mentioned.
My short and intense magical duel with that Master Vampire in Morthal was fresh in my memory. If I'd not eaten that Golden Apple my journey would have ended that night. I simply wasn't ready to take on such powerful enemies and so it was good that I was focused on my education these days.
"Yes, lightning is the best way to break through a ward spell. I think a small demonstration is in order. Macross, would you mind helping me?" Tolfdir requested.
I wondered if he kept singling me out for these demonstrations because he was trying to get a measure of my power, or if he just thought I had some promise as a student.
"Not at all, sir," I said.
"Wonderful. Now, if you could take this amulet, we can begin," Tolfdir said while pulling a small amulet out of his top pocket.
Unlike in the game, you can wear more than one amulet, but magical items are very
expensive so few people can afford to wear as many as I could. Plus amulets can get tangled up or caught on something.
"Good. I would like you to cast your ward and hold it while I send some lightning at you. I just want you to hold the ward until it collapses" the wizard said "That amulet will absorb most of the energy from the lightning attack".
I was fine with this as I'd been hit with this kind of magic before and it hadn't done much that distract me with pain.
"Now, please stand on the seal over there and cast your ward" I was instructed.
I moved over to the seal we had used in previous lessons and held up my hand. The now very familiar shimmer of a ward spell appeared before me.
"Now, hold your ward steady, and I'll try to break through it," Tolfdir said, as his hands began to glow with electricity.
Soon Tolfdir was sending streams of sparks at my ward. The shield held for a couple of seconds, but then collapsed completely despite the power I could put into it. The sparks briefly covered me and stung me a little before Tolfdir put his hands down, and as the spell faded it really tickled.
"Excellent work, my boy. Are you alright?" he asked,
I was actually okay. Aside from the fact that I couldn't stop laughing for a few moments. Tolfdir must be able to weaken his own attack as the ward collapsed and that combined with my own strange nature as well as the amulet had taken the sting out of that assault.
"Fine thanks," I said before returning the amulet.
Tolfdir smiled before speaking.
"As you can see your warding can not protect you against all kinds of attacks," said the teacher "And if you find yourself going up against a dangerous mage you should have an idea of what to do. Lightening attacks are just one way of defeating wards".
I'd likely teleported myself behind the hostile mage and just shoot him.
"Now who else would like to try and sustain their ward while under attack by a lightning spell?" he asked.
Everyone volunteered and since this lesson had taken place later in the day than was normal we all went off for dinner right afterwards.
Nearly the whole college, but not that Thalmor git had gathered in a room that contained a long wooden table and some chairs. For dinner, we had cheese, salted horker meat and few slices of roast beef, and green apples which weren't easy to get this far north.
Even my two former vampire companions had come out of their rooms, although they were deep in discussion about something and I didn't bother them. They still had a lot of history to catch up on.
I was a little wary of eating food prepared by people who didn't have refrigeration or knowledge of germs, but it wasn't as if their cooking could kill me, and I had potions for pretty much every illness should the worse happen.
"How goes your research?" Faralda asked her fellow staff members as she drank some wine.
Faralda was the Altmer mage who specialized in Destruction Magic, she was also charged with not letting the riff-raff into the College.
"I had a small breakthrough with my research," one of the other staff members said "The Dragonborn kindly gave us some more samples of dragon's scales and bones. What about your work? How does that progress?".
From what I knew the Dragonborn had sailed off. Had they returned or had they just sent some materials to the college via a third party? I should find out more about the Dragonborn at some point if only to be sure I could avoid them. I didn't want to get involved in their insanity.
"Nothing to be said, there's no progress when Nirya keeps bothering me and Collete keeps making speeches on Restoration magic" the Altmer complained.
Given that Collete was here that was a bit mean of Faralda to say that. As for Niraya, both she and Faralda spent a lot of time with Sergius Turrianus who was the college's master of enchanting, as such they were rivals.
"And you junior mages?" asked the Arch-Mage "What have you done during your self-study session? Aside from enduring Collete's speeches".
I wouldn't mention my sneaking out.
"J'zargo practised his fireballs…it did not go too well. J'zargo burnt J'zargo's fur in the process" my fellow apprentice confessed.
The cat guy then lifted his tail, showing charred fur on the point of his tail. It looked painful, but since I didn't have a tail I could imagine how bad it must be. Also, I had to wonder how he'd managed to throw a fireball at his own tail.
"Now you understand why I urge caution," Tolfdir said.
Thankfully for the cat guy, no one decided to lecture him further on the subject.
"And you Onmund?" the Arch Mage asked next "How are your studies progressing".
"I still don't understand why I must do low-level spells first" Onmund moaned "I am ready for more advanced spells".
"You can't ever hope to master Chain-lightning if you can't even do your Spark spell properly. It takes full concentration of the mind to control the sheer force of lightning. Learn from J'zargo's error" Faralda advised.
Nords weren't well known for being cautious. There were exceptions of course and hopefully my classmate would be one of them.
The Arch-Mage continued by asking Brelyna about her research.
"I found some good materials thanks to Urag, but I'm mostly helping him to arrange the library," she told us.
The library was always lending out books and new ones came in from time to time. The Orc, who had already left the table to get back to work had a hell of a job on his hands. The library you see in the game is just a fraction of the reality and it's no wonder that mage side quests involve recovering books.
"You might be our next librarian soon. Poor old Urag barely manages to take care of his collections" Toljfir commented before turning to me "I hear that you've been practising wards and minor frost spells with Onmund".
I didn't think it was worth mentioning, but apparently, it needed to be discussed.
"Frost magic is ineffective against Nords," I said "Onmund needed some help with his wards and it seemed the safest way".
I saw some nods of approval.
"Another thing is that I need to remind you to start your research projects" the Arch Mage was now saying "Your friend Brelyna has already been doing some research"
The project was a big deal because you had to come up with some sort of thesis or dissertation much as you would for an academic degree in my word, or you couldn't graduate from this college. Not that you really needed to do it as any student could stay as long as they wanted at the college, but if you wanted to be a court mage or to ever become a member of staff at the college then you had to do a decent dissertation.
It didn't have to be original research you could simply do your own analysis of an already well-explored topic as long it was your own work and offered something of value or you could even try to disprove another person's work.
Given that to pass the thesis had to approve by a committee made up of several of the staff at the college they'd know if it wasn't a student's own work. In essence, it was like a master's degree in magic and some students spent up to two years in research before feeling ready to present their findings to the staff.
"I just don't have any ideas" Onmund complained.
Perhaps I could help him with that as well.
"Excuses…excuses, go read in the library and you'll eventually find some topic that catches your interest," Faralda said.
I already had a few ideas about mine. Not that I was in any rush, I just liked the idea of being a College of Winterhold-approved wizard.
Saarthal. Skyrim.
Days turned into weeks as I settled into life at the college. I'd devoted myself to the study of using magic in combat and to protect myself. Learning new spells was slow going, but once I could cast the spell I had no trouble powering it. I'd mostly focused on Destruction magic and defending myself with magic.
I'd picked up a few other tricks along the way as I kept my focus on learning what I needed to know in order to handle the dangerous land that was Skyrim.
When it became time to go to Saarthal I felt somewhat ready for the trials ahead. I knew already most of what was going to happen and I had the Staff of Magnus. Should everything go as planned I should end up as Arch-Mage, a position that would give me access to all of the college's resources.
Our teacher, Tolfdir was already waiting for us when we reached the entrance. Getting here hadn't taken long because as it turned out the College of Winterhold did have access to some teleportation magic and had set things up so that mages could between here and the college via some platforms. I felt fairly certain that there had been something similar set up between the Mages Guild buildings in Morrowind.
"And here we all are. Shall we step inside?" he asked.
I spoke for the group. My progress with magic over the last few weeks had put me at the head of the pack. Being wealthy helped with that and I was the most mature of the apprentices.
"We're ready, sir," I told him "Let's go".
We began heading inside.
"Alright. Please stay close to me while we're inside," he warned us, "it should be safe, but it's always better to be cautious".
He opened the ornate iron doors and led us as we descended the narrow staircase into the ancient city. The ruins were a combination of natural stone combined with wooden supports and struts, which were new, but the stonework was old yet still in good shape. The ancient Nords sure knew how to build places to last.
I noticed the many urns, intact and broken, lay scattered around the place, along with the remains of skeletons, a skull here and there. I wondered if these were the remains of people who had fought and died to defend this city from the Snow Elves.
So far, there wasn't anything of major interest. However, I knew that would change as we ventured further into the ancient settlement.
As Tolfdir told us a little about the ruin's history, Brelyna sidled up close to me. We'd spent some time together when she was out of the library and I was studying under Tolfdir who had decided to mentor me in one on one sessions.
"Well, are there any questions before we begin?" our teacher requested.
There were none.
"Macross, why don't you and Brelyna see if you can assist Arniel Gane?" the mage suggested to me.
That suited me fine and the Dark Elf seemed pleased as well.
"He's interested in the magical items found here, from what I've heard," I said.
Tolfdir was pleased that I'd learned about this place before coming here. I even had a crude map.
"Yes, he'd appreciate any help you can give in finding and cataloguing any magical artefacts that can be found," the old man said as he pointed out where Gane should be on the map "Any enchanted items will do; the usefulness is irrelevant. If you do find something, then the whole class can look it over".
And possibly I'd keep a few things for myself.
"Now, what shall we have the rest of you do?" our teacher wondered.
"J'zargo will find something... worthwhile to occupy his time," said J'zargo
With that, he slipped away. No doubt he would go looking for things to stuff into his pockets. Not that I was going to judge him as I had similar intentions.
"All right, everyone. Let's be careful, but have fun!" our teacher called out.
I rolled my eyes a little upon hearing Tolfdir's words. What, did he think we were still children? Then again given that wizards could live a long time he would naturally see us as reckless youths when compared to him.
Before long Brelyna and I were descending further down into the excavation site. After crossing over a stone bridge and ducking into a side passage, we met a balding man in mage robes, and he was leaning over a table nearby.
"It will take forever to sift through all this," he said.
This man sounded tired and a little frustrated. He certainly seemed as if he needed the help.
"Excuse me, sir. Tolfdir sent us to help you" I told Arniel Gane
He turned to me, and I saw the large bags under his eyes which were caused by him
getting little sleep.
"Oh, you must be one of the new apprentices then," said Arniel Gane "Fine, fine just don't make a mess of my work, all right? I've only looked through a portion of this section. You can, uh, search the area north of here. Can you do that?".
I nodded.
"Yes sir, I'll let you know if we find anything" I answered.
While it took some time to find anything we did discover two enchanted rings, I could tell that they were enchanted, however, I didn't know what sort of enchantments they carried, only that it wasn't strong magic. An experienced mage could tell if something was enchanted without having to test the item.
As we looked around some more, I found an amulet that did seem to contain some strong magic, and I knew it was important so I took the amulet off its stand and then turned around, intending to report back to Gane. But my way was suddenly blocked by metal spears that had risen up out of holes in the ground.
I began to look around for some kind of release mechanism that would lower the spears, a chain, a switch. But there was nothing. Nothing that would open it. I would have to teleport myself out with Brelyna.
"Are we trapped?" asked the Dark Elf.
Unless there was a hidden switch I would have to expose some of my true power to Brelyna and hope that she could be trusted.
"What in the world was that racket? Is everything alright?" someone asked.
Tolfdir turned up before I could free us. Not that it mattered as I was fairly certain there was another way to go from here, and I was supposed to take that route. My memories of these events from playing the game weren't perfect, however, I felt sure that I was on the right track.
"Hmm, perhaps that amulet is important somehow" mused the mage as he studied the situation "Is there some way you can use it?".
I looked down at the amulet that I held in my hand. It did seem to have a very powerful enchantment on it, and that made it somewhat risky to simply put on. It could be cursed, only I couldn't really be harmed by simple magic, and someone at the college should be able to undo any minor effects.
As soon as I put the amulet on I immediately felt some energy surge through me. Somehow, my magic felt a little stronger, it must be giving me a boost. Due to my Elder Blood, I already had great power so I'd likely hand over this trinket to the college. I needed enchanted items for sure, but not for a power boost.
"Did you see that?" the teacher asked,
I then looked at the wall I got the amulet. It had changed.
"Some kind of resonance between you and the wall," said Tolfdir "it must be connected to the amulet!".
He was right, I could remember now. I clapped my hands together and formed a firebolt in the space between them, then I fired it at the wall, which soon crumbled away.
"Well, that's one way of doing it," Tolfdir said.
As the dust settled I saw that there was another passage behind the wall. Also, the spears had vanished.
"This appears to lead somewhere" the teacher was now saying "Let's see where it goes."
I ended up letting him take the lead down the passage with Brelyna bringing up the rear. It led down a naturally formed cave, one lighted up with torches that lit themselves up as we got near them. Also, I saw patches of moss that were clinging to the walls, something Val might care about as it might be usable in a potion. I'd mention it to her late in case she wanted to come and collect a sample.
"Why in the world would this be sealed off from the rest of the settlement?" Tolfdir "What is this place?".
Before long the passage had ended, opening up into another room. Right away I noticed that there was a stone table in the middle of the room, as well as several pieces of ancient tools placed atop it, along with a few candle stubs. The tools must be used for whatever process of mummification it was the ancient Nords had used.
Another thing I took note of was the three stone coffins, one on each wall, and they were propped up against the walls. Thankfully, whatever was in them stayed in them, at least for now.
"So, this was all that wall had sealed off" Tolfdir was now saying "A small burial chamber for the ancient Nords of great importance perhaps?".
I wanted to be relieved that it was nothing more dangerous here than cobwebs and coffins. However, I knew for a fact that there was something down here that could destroy this entire world.
Tolfdir looked around.
"Perhaps we should take a look in some of these coffins," he suggested. "Now, please be careful. Who knows what we're going to find".
I couldn't help feeling amused for some reason.
"If we end up releasing some ancient evil, don't worry, I'll say it was my idea" I promised.
Tolfdir chuckled and Brelyna let out a nervous laugh. Our good mood didn't last as when I opened a coffin and got grabbed. Lucky for me I'd been expecting something like this and had my goblin-silver dagger in hand and that ended the threat rather quickly. If I had not seen it coming then that would have been quite scary.
We wisely didn't bother anyone else's eternal rest. None of the other dead had started moving about so it didn't seem as if they would unless we bothered them. We couldn't let our intellectual curiosity get the better of us. Not that I'd been in any real danger.
"There may be more of them," my teacher warned.
After descending more stairs, there was a gate to the next room. A skeleton was hanging on the wall next to it, held by iron shackles. I tried not to look at it, instead, I pulled the lever next to the door.
This room was larger than the last one. There was a bridge in the centre, which was surrounded by candles that had somehow been lit, and the bridge crossed over a cage, which was showing the floor beneath.
About a dozen coffins were placed in groves in the rock around the bridge so that they surrounded us. I looked down through the cage floor and saw that there were rows and rows of coffins, descending into the darkness below.
Before long I heard the sound of coffin lids hitting the floor and I saw their occupants stepping out. I sent a firebolt at the closest draugr. My magic took that undead out of the fight, at least for the moment, but there were still four more around the room. Two were charging over the bridge with battle axes, the other two shooting from afar with bows and arrows. One of them was aiming right at me.
We three mages raised our wards with one hand and sent out magical fire attacks with the other. Arrows bounced off our wards as the fire magic proved to be effective against the undead. Burnt undead bodies are no fun to be around, but it was better than joining them as corpses.
Once the fighting was done I checked on Tolfdir, who was looking through the floor at the ancient morgue that was below us.
"I've never seen anything like this before in Nordic ruins. Why just look at all these coffins!" he said to me "This bares closer investigation. I'd like to stay a while and examine this area".
Fate must intend for me to find the Eye of Magnus, and to prevent it from blowing up the world. Although I did have to wonder why The Psijic Order, who would later take custody of the Eye of Magnus, didn't just take it now. Perhaps they weren't prepared yet or maybe it had been shielded from then until now?
I'll catch up with you as soon as I can" he said "And Brelyna, Macross if it is hazardous, please be careful".
Brelyna didn't speak she just followed me.
"Of course, sir" was my reply.
Time go find the Eye and get this show on the road.
Saarthal. Skyrim.The Nords or the Psijics, or whoever had set up the defences around the Eye of Magnus, certainly hadn't wanted the powerful artefact to be accessed easily and despite that making sense, it was still annoying. Brelyna and I had to fight our way through quite a few draugr, then solve a pillar puzzle, as well as disable a trap that involved spears.
"Did something just happen?" I asked.
We'd just entered yet another underground tunnel when I felt something strange happen. I couldn't put it into words, I just knew that something had taken place that was out of the ordinary. I was starting to be able to sense these things.
"Did you see him?" Brelyna asked.
I couldn't see anyone.
"See who?" I asked.
It didn't take long for me to figure out what she meant as the mage did her best to explain what had just happened.
The Psijics had made contact with her rather than me. I was hidden from divination magic so it made sense that the Psijics hadn't contacted me. A real shame as I'd been hoping to meet with someone from that order in the hopes of convincing them to take me on as a student.
Now it seemed as if they'd focused on Brelyna. That they thought she was the one to handle the Eye of Magnus and become the next Archmage. That could be a good thing for me as if I became the leader of the college it might get in the way of me spending months in other worlds adapting to more systems of magic.
If Brelyna became the next Archmage I could enjoy the benefits of having a friend in a high position without the responsibility. If I offered to fund the college and gave them other means of support she'd become dependent on me to keep her role.
Such concerns were for later as for now, it would be best to help guide Brelyna rather than give her too much help. I would step if things got too bad, I didn't want the Eye to blow you and kill everyone, but I needed to help my Dark Elf friend grow into her role, rather than do all the work for her.
"Hold on, Hold on!" someone called out.
Turning I saw Tolfdir running towards me. Once he'd caught up he stopped to catch his breath.
"I thought it high time I caught up with you two," he said.
The old man seemed no worse for wear, yet I was concerned for his well-being. I'd become rather fond of Tolfdir, he was a good teacher and he cared for his students. He wasn't a young man and this expedition was dangerous.
"Did you make it through alright, sir?" I asked.
There might have been a small chance that we'd missed some draugr on the way here. The few that Brelyna had needed to deal with went down easily enough, but it wasn't always easy to tell the difference between a proper corpse and one that would attack when your back was turned.
"Yes, it was all quiet," he told me "You two really are skilled mages if you made it through all that".
All it had taken was some fireballs and some quick thinking.
"Thank you," I said
"Should we press on?" Brelyna asked.
The older mage nodded and we walked into the next corridor. Proceeding with caution, we descended the stairs and we found the Eye of Magnus with a large chamber.
"Well now... would you look at that" Tolfdir said.
We'd emerged into a room with a grand and very high ceiling. But what got our attention wasn't the size of the place, rather our attention was drawn to what we found in the room.
There was a formation of four tall pillars. These were engulfed in a flowing field of oddly coloured energy. At the centre of this was a gigantic, floating orb, glowing with the same energy and decorated with strange symbols. I could feel the power radiating off it.
"I never imagined we'd find something like this," my teacher said with awe and fascination in his voice. "Why is this buried so far within Saarthal?".
While keeping our eyes fixed on the orb, we headed down the wooden ramp towards it. We were so transfixed by this awesome sight that we almost didn't see a body propped on the throne at the head of a table. Thankfully we all noticed the movement of the undead and the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath.
"Draugr!" the old wizard called out in warning.
In short order, I sent three firebolts at it. Two of them hit it, and they had absolutely no effect. I tried again, watching as the fireballs hit the monster and exploded on impact but they did nothing more than cause the monster to fall over.
The elderly wizard sent a stream of sparks, but they didn't work either. They crackled all over his body and did nothing to him. This thing was immune to our magical attacks.
It turned to me and sent a shard of ice flying from his hand at my head. I raised a ward in order to protect myself.
"Keep it busy, I'll try to drain some of its power!" my fellow mage called out.
Brelyna and I would have to keep its attention on me so Tolfdir could work his magic. Literally. Thankfully this wasn't hard to do as the powerful undead thing wasn't very fast or agile. I had a sword of my own, and while I wasn't trained to use it, I only had to distract the undead creature not defeat it.
"There! Attack it now!" the old wizard shouted out.
I backed off as Brelyna sent fire at the creature. Soon, it was down on its knees, overpowered by the magical flames. It might be able to use the power of The Eye to recover so I knew that it needed to be destroyed.
"Let me finish it off!" I called out.
While it was distracted by the whole being on fire thing I strode up to it and drove my blade through its chest from behind. It gargled and slumped to the ground, lifeless, well more lifeless than it had been before.
I found two items of interest on the draugr's body despite might dislike for touching dead bodies. One was what looked like a piece of a magical amulet, part of a set if I remembered correctly. The other was a writ of sealing, a piece of parchment placed with the body to keep it from walking about or leaving the tomb if it did. Not that it had worked.
It read:
Be bound here, Jyrik, murderer, betrayer
Condemned by your crimes against realm and lord.
May your name and your deeds be forgotten forever
And the charm which you bear be sealed by our ward.
Interesting. This guy must have done something pretty bad to be buried all the way down here. It had something to do with the Gaulder legend if I recalled correctly.
Long ago, Archmage Gauldur was murdered by his three sons, who stole his amulet of power and divided it among themselves. They immediately began a rampage around Skyrim. This attracted the attention of the High King Harald of Skyrim, he sent his best warriors and his personal battlemage, a man called Lord Geirmund after the sons.
A great chase ensued, from the wilds of the Reach to the glacial north. One brother is said to have perished in the ruins of Folgunthur, at the Foot of Solitude. The others were run to ground soon thereafter.
Perhaps I should check the notes I had in my Book of Shadows and go after the other parts of the amulets. Since I could teleport around it shouldn't take long.
"Well, this is absolutely fascinating," Tolfdir was saying "This is amazing, absolutely amazing. The Arch-Mage needs to be informed of this at once. He needs to see this for himself. I don't dare leave this unattended".
I soon decided what needed to be done.
"Brelyna, if you head to the library and start looking for anything we have on this thing I'll go alert the Archmage," I said.
Tolfdir approved of this.
"Good thinking, Macross" he praised, "please hurry".
Brelyna and I headed off to the entrance of the city with the intent of using the teleporter there to quickly return to the college. Folgunthur. Skyrim.
Not long after informing the Arch-mage of the discovery, I'd decided to slip out, taking Serana (or Sera as she was referred while we were staying at the college) with me so that I could complete the Gaulder Amulet quest and obtain a greatly desired prize. I'd left Serana's mother behind, letting her know that I wanted her to keep watch over the Eye of Magnus while I was gone.
We wouldn't be gone for long and it should take the Arch-Mage and his fellow staff members at the College, at least a few hours to move the Eye of Magnus back to Winterhold.
"Any Draugrs in here?" Sera asked as we entered the dangerous ruin.
I knew for certain there would be in the game, but since I had never entered this place in real life I couldn't be totally sure.
"Probably," I replied. "Just be on your guard".
As we continued forward, we soon found a sight that would give most people nightmares for weeks to come. There was blood all over the floor and a few dead bodies lying about. The smell was just terrible.
The dead people here weren't equipped right to be adventurous, they looked more like a group of miners, some sort of treasure-hunting expedition gone wrong I assumed. It had happened recently.
"Watch for traps," I said.
We came across a very large chamber but before we could move through it, we saw the coffins along the walls begin to break open. A pair of Draugrs emerged and we quickly sprang into action.
As two Draugrs ran straight towards us, I attacked them with lightning and blasts of fire, while Sera did the same. Between my raw power and her experience, we made short work of the undead, unlike the foolish treasure hunters.
Beyond the next door, there was a spiral staircase then we found a rickety wooden bridge leading to a platform. All of which were just above the large chamber we'd gotten ambushed in only moments ago. As we crossed the bridge to the other side, we noticed even more blood stains on the platform.
The body of a Dunmer mage lay dead on the platform, and he was covered in more of the red stuff. Right next to him lay a journal, and a large claw that was made out of ivory. I also noticed a small pedestal with an engraving of some sort on it. It resembled the shape of the ivory claw I'd just found.
I knew exactly what to do here, but I didn't rush things. Instead, I picked up the journal from the floor and started reading it. There was never any harm in having a bit more knowledge about the places you were exploring.
"What does it say?" the former vampire asked me once I was done.
Then I read it again only out loud, it told me nothing that I didn't already know, due to playing the game, but I placed the journal in my pouch of holding anyway. I had entire libraries to fill in my homes and journals could be part of those collections.
I picked the ivory claw up from the floor and Sera watched curiously as I placed the claw onto the pedestal. It clicked into place and I turned the claw key. Then we heard a rumbling as things began to move. Soon we had a path that would allow us to move onwards.
As we moved deeper into the ruin we established a comfortable rhythm of attacking our foes. They would appear and one of us would blast with lightning in order to stun the undead, and then the other would use fire to destroy the monsters. How you could stun the undead was a bit of a mystery. I could only assume that the magic animating them was disrupted.
The undead things couldn't hurt us and the traps were easily dealt with by me using The Impediment Jinx (Impedimenta), to slow the movements of the traps.
Finally, we came upon a door. It had an engraving similar to the one on the pedestal that I had used the ivory claw to open. Above the slot were three discs, each with an engraving of a different animal on it. I proceeded to stick the ivory claw into the slot.
As in the game, I rotated the lock until the animals matched the ones on the claw and then I pushed the claw and the door began to open. Why the combination was on the back of the claw I had no idea, but the ancients who built this place must have had a good reason that made sense to them at the time.
Soon enough we found ourselves in a gigantic crypt. It was too dark to see much but it felt creepy enough to be the right place.
"I think this is it," I said "The room where one of Gauldur's sons is buried"
Just then, as if in response to my statement, there was the sound of stones breaking. I watched as the lid broke off a stone coffin and a Draugr climbed out of it.
"Wo alok dilon," the undead thing spoke "Fen dir!"
That didn't need translating as the undead thing raised up his sword and charged towards us. I took out my staff and with the use of my limited wand magic I sent the undead flying into a wall with the Banishing Charm. When the creature got up it return the favour by using a Shout to knock Serana and me over.
That was when other Draugrs broke out of the coffins along the walls and joined the fray. They didn't last long either as I was able to use my staff to deal with them. Bursts of magical power emitted by the staff struck them down. The raw magical energy stored within the staff easily dealt with the lesser undead.
The boss of this dungeon was harder to take down. He could teleport over short distances and used that to try to attack from unexpected directions. He appeared behind us and Shouted again to disarm us.
Alas for the undead creature the staff came flying back into my hand, which was not something I'd known could happen, and after blasting the monster I drained the magical energy that was animating the corpse.
Once the fighting was done I took the scroll that was resting on top of the altar, unrolled it and read it out loud.
"Be bound here, Mikrul, murderer, betrayer. Condemned by your crimes against realm and lord. May your name and your deeds be forgotten forever. And the charm which you bear be sealed by our ward"
After that, I recovered both The Gauldur Blackblade, which had an absorb health enchantment in the game if I recall correctly and part of the amulet.
"Now we need to grab the last part of the amulet before we repair it," I said to Serana
"And I know exactly where we need to go to do that".
This little adventure should be over in a matter of hours.
Geirmund's Hall. Skyrim.
According to the journal I'd picked up from the leader of that failed treasure-hunting expedition, Sigdis Gauldurson was the brother to who killed Lord Geirmund after the defeat of his two siblings. Sigdis fell in the lengthy battle and Geirmund's Hall was to be his final resting place, forever sealed and protected. Only it wasn't as I easily got in. If there had been magical protections here they'd long since faded away.
Serana and I found Geirmund's Hall on an island east of Ivarstead, in the waters of Lake Geir. Compared to the other two tombs, Geirmund's Hall was rather small. I felt unimpressed, to say the least.
"Not much of a hall, is it?" I said,
I'd have called it Geirmund's Hole In The Ground.
"What do you mean?" asked Serana.
"This place is called a Hall, but it doesn't look anything like a hall," I explained "It's more of a hole or just a cave".
She had nothing to say about that so we proceeded further into the cave. Looking around it became clear that this place was no Bleak Falls Barrow that was for sure. Serana wasn't fond of being underground due to having been stored away for centuries. I would move quickly for her sake.
The only immediate threat was a swarm of skeevers, basically giant rats that lived in the darker, danker places in Skyrim, as most rats generally do. On their own, they didn't pose much of a threat but the trouble was they were never alone and they carried debilitating diseases that you could catch if they bit you.
Not that there was much risk of that as the two of us were more than a match for them and the vermin were swiftly reduced to corpses before they could hope to sink their teeth into our flesh. Not that they could have infected us since we both had eaten golden apples, yet being bitten was still something I wished to avoid.
After that, we all jumped down into a pool of really cold water and we began wading until we found a room. There wasn't much in the chamber, just a few urns and a soul gem which we did take. I used wand magic to quickly dry our clothing and I was glad that I had kept on studying that branch of magic because it could be very useful sometimes.
The next room contained a puzzle which was easy enough to solve. The symbols on the left wall had to be matched with those on the left side of the cave and the same for the right side. After we had lined up Eagle—Whale—Snake—Whale the door opened for us and we proceeded on
In the next part of this dungeon, we both took on a draugr that came to meet us. They never even got close to try stabbing us as we just blasted them with magical attacks.
"Poor defences" I commented.
In the main chamber, we found the body of the Arch-Mage Geirmund, who lay upon a
cold stone slab. Beyond him, I saw what I assumed to be the way into another chamber.
"This doesn't seem right" I muttered.
Dungeon diving in Skyrim normally took longer than this, there should be more traps and creatures to fight or simply more rooms with some sort of treasure in them. Not that I really needed to find some treasure since I was already very wealthy.
I'd noticed the lack of loot when compared to the game, and I'd put that down to other adventures getting here before me or reality just being more stingy with the treasure, but this was different, it was as if the real Skyrim was both much bigger and yet somehow smaller than it should be. Perhaps it was just my exceptions that had been either too big or too small. Real life had a way of disappointing you while also sometimes being more bizarre than any fiction.
The corpse of the Arch-Mage held the key required to enter the next part of the tomb
As we did a coffin lid was kicked off and a horn-helmeted, heavily armoured draugr emerged from the coffin, before drawing an ancient sword and leering at us. I could see a glowing amulet hanging around his neck. It would soon be mine.
"Sigdis Gaulderson, I presume," I said, "You have something I want".
Rather than reply, the undead thing vanished in a flash of purple light. I could have sworn I heard him chuckle at us as he did.
"Where is he?" I wondered.
I took out the Staff of Magnus and put up a protective barrier.
"There!" Serana called out "Also there, and there".
On each of the three platforms, there was a draugr that looked identical to Gaulderson. From this distance though, it was impossible to tell which one was the real one.
Two of the drauger were drawing bows, and the other prepared a different kind of attack.
"FUS"
My barrier protected us from the magical attack and while I kept my left hand firmly gripping the staff I used my right to send out blasts of lightning. Serana unleashed spikes made out of ice that caused the illusions to fade away when struck.
He vanished just as we prepared another attack. We tried quickly to take out the copies, but he was teleporting around too fast for us to get a good shot at him, keeping us confused and annoying me.
"How are we supposed to hit him when we don't even know which one he is?" asked the former vampire.
Rather than give her a verbal answer I just took out my pistol and quickly shot all three of the undead things as firing a gun is much faster than casting spells. Only the lack of spare bullets kept me from using it more often. Due to my shooting, the illusions vanished and the real monster was knocked into the water.
After passing the staff to Serana, I took out my sword and went over to what remained of Gaulderson as it tried to pick itself up. Longclaw was very effective against the undead and the monster soon stopped moving.
No one in my small group had a use for the bow as none of us was an archer, but it would be worth something in trade or I could place it on display in one of my homes. The amulet was what I cared about and I now had all the parts. I just had to go and get the parts put back together.
The amulet would boost my already impressive powers, allowing me to do more with my limited knowledge, and when I had the knowledge required to be a proper wizard I would be an extremely powerful one.
That put a smile on my face.
Reachwater Rock. Skyrim.
After a quick trip to Geirmund's Hall to pick up the last part of the amulet and an enchanted bow that no one in my group had any use for but I would keep anyway, we headed to the one place in this land where the three parts of the amulet could be made whole again.
My companion and I were currently beneath the surface, I seemed to be spending a lot of time underground ever since coming to Skyrim. The entire country was like an iceberg in that most of it was hidden from sight.
"Let's be quick," said Serana "I've had enough of caves to last me a lifetime".
We followed a dirt path that led us up to a natural platform that was above a pool of water at the centre of the cave. Upon this platform was a tablet, and upon that tablet was written a warning, a message telling me not to enter the tomb and that its occupants should be left to rest in peace.
As if to reinforce this idea that it was best to leave this place as quickly as possible, we found the body of a dead adventurer. He was dressed in iron armour and was gripping one of those fancy dragon claw keys in his cold, dead hand.
Normally I'd pay attention to the health and safety warning, and not go poking around the dangerous area, but these days I was a lot harder to kill and could teleport away from threats, as such I wasn't concerned.
Quickly I moved to take the claw, knowing now its value both as an artefact and as a key. After I had taken the key we approached the great stone door that stood atop the ramp.
"Would you like to do the honours?" I asked.
Serana rotated the symbols so that they matched those on the claw, having seen me done this before, and turned the lock with a grinding of stone. A cloud of dust escaped through the cracks as the door descended, revealing the opening. We proceeded slowly forward as other doors along the way descended one at a time, one after the other with the same echoing grinding of stone.
Once we got past the stone doors we entered a large room, it was grand, almost like the hall of a great king. However, I knew it to be the final resting place of a powerful mage who had lost his life due to betrayal by his own flesh and blood. In my view, this was a valid reason for me not to have children.
Great columns lined the room on either side, now cracked with age and lined with roots and moss, much like the walls that encircled it. The stairs led down to a space which was filled with many different stone coffins. At the end was another coffin, and an altar of some sort with three parts. One for each piece of the amulet, like this had all been expected.
"Come on, let's reform this amulet and get out of here," I said to Sera.
Gently, I put the first fragment on a panel and it began to glow in a golden light, when I placed the following segment on the second plinth, it got the same reaction. The final one had the same effect, only this time accompanied by a sudden, foreboding rumbling in the walls, enough to make me wonder if an Earthquake was about to seal us in this tomb.
However, that wasn't what happened. Instead, some spirits appeared, the spirits of the mage's sons, and they hovered before the coffin of their father. Mirkul, Sigdis and Jyrick if I had their names right. While I'd defeated them before that didn't mean that they were no threat to us now.
This was confirmed when one stood forward, drew his sword and vanished in a flash of purple light. As he reappeared on the other side of the room, I heard the sounds of coffin lids being kicked open and slamming to the floor. The draugr within them stepped out, drawing bows, clutching axes and swords, getting ready to attack.
Soon were fighting for our lives, or perhaps not given our immortality, since it was unlikely that these spirits could actually kill us. It was best to assume that they could do some harm and to act upon that. Serana brought up a ward to protect us as I blasted the undead with the Staff of Magnus.
Once the first son had been defeated for the second time I turned to see that he had returned to the altar, and he was now kneeling in a position of surrender beside the spirits of his brothers. The remaining thralls, who were still standing, now keeled over and became lifeless corpses once more, the influence of their master now gone.
"One down, two to go" I muttered.
The next brother laughed, and it was a dead, hollow sound, which he made before he vanished in the same flash of light.
"This might take a while" I moaned.
Hopefully too long. I had other things I needed to do today and with that in mind, I blasted anything that moved with the Staff of Magnus.
Once the fighting was done I felt a great deal of satisfaction at finishing the quest to gather the parts and then repair the Gaulder amulet.
It was over now, the three sons were gone, their vengeful spirits were banished for good and their father could get some well-earned rest. At least that was the sense I'd gotten once I'd gotten the amulet restored.
"It's beautiful" Serana stated.
I turned back to the altar, staring into the light that shone from it. Suspended in the golden light, fully completed and whole for the first time in many, many years, was the amulet of Gaulder, the one that had given him his unique powers and that his sons had so lusted after. They had used the pieces of the amulet to spread havoc and destruction across Skyrim before they were stopped. Now, it was time to use it for better purposes.
My intention was to have my other companion disenchant my amulet that kept me safe from Divination magic and then to make some copies as rings so that we could all benefit from the protection. With the Psijic Order sticking their noses into the college's business it would get my whole group some defence against scrying. I would like to study with that group, but I wanted to make contact on my terms.
"Let's get back to the College," I said to Serana.
I'd really had enough of old tombs and so had she.