The creature was over ten feet tall and encased in iron bands. It swung its massive arms, one of which was no more than an enormous sword, and took out another adventurer with a swipe that sent the man flying. Deep, horrible scars in twisted designs covered its fleshy body. I could see in places on its chest and limb another kind of scar, the kind that looked like it had been stitched together. Instead of a face, it had blank skin stretched over its grimacing skull.

"Dead," the Redguard said, clapping slowly at the violent display before him and shaking his head. "I warned them, didn't I?"

His Dunmer companion wrinkled his nose. "Yuck. Look at all the blood and gore. I'm getting out of here."

He walked back down the stairs, stepping nimbly aside as one of the combatants came pelting down past him to escape the creature.

I was too shocked to do anything except watch as it tore the last man in half. Then it swung its head around and roared as it rushed toward me. I hastily stumbled back down a few of the steps. It slammed to a halt at the top of the stairs and loomed over me. I'd have sworn it was staring at me, if it had had any eyes. Letting out an irritated grunt, it shook its head and lumbered back to stand before the dual gates set into the wall.

I heard a bark of laughter and glanced back to see the Redguard smirking at me.

"You must be new around here. I'm Shelden," he said, extending one of his dark hands to me. When I glared at him, he quickly withdrew it. "I've been here the longest. That's why I'm the mayor of Passwall. That, and I'm the best at being in charge. Welcome to my town!"

The hulking monster was certainly a great welcome.

"What is that thing?" I said, nodding toward it.

"The Gatekeeper. As you'd expect from the name, he guards the Gates of Madness," he explained with a hint of disgust. "Don't get too close to him. He'll kill you, and it will leave a mess. Jayred Ice-Veins wants to kill the Gatekeeper. Sounds like suicide to me."

Looking back at the monster, I could certainly see why. "Why on earth would anyone want to go near that thing, let alone try to kill it?"

A slow grin spread across Shelden's face at that and he said to me, voice conspiratorial, "They say the keys to the Gates are sewn up in the Gatekeeper's body. Basically, that means you're not getting in. Not without taking him down first."

So that was what I had to do to get to Sheogorath? Fine. It wasn't the biggest monster I'd ever faced. Not by a long shot.

"Where is this man?"

His eyes widened. "So you want to die, too? Be my guest, but I'm not cleaning up after you. Jayred lives at the edge of town, in that direction." He pointed out over the buildings towards the swamp. I nodded sharply, and marched back down the stairs.


As Shelden said, Jayred Ice-Veins's house was nearly beyond the town's border. It was a small house, taller than it was wide, and built up on a massive root that jutted out over the swamp. I walked up the stairs and carefully knocked on the door, trying not to get splinters in my hands from the heavily-cracked wood. I was certain the only things holding it together were the iron bars nailed into it, but even then it was only just.

"It's unlocked," a deep voice called from somewhere within.

I pushed open the door, wincing slightly at the loud creaking noise it made, and stepped inside.

The first thing I noticed was the bones. Everywhere there were bones of every size: hanging from the walls, piled in the corners, resting on the table and the shelves. The empty sockets where the skulls' eyes should have been seemed to follow me as I walked past.

The voice I'd heard belonged to a burly Nord dressed all in fur. Long braids hung limply around his face, and he stared at me with pale green eyes with a gaze that felt like it was boring into me.

"Are you Jayred Ice-Veins?" I asked him.

He nodded slowly, his gaze unbroken and unblinking. It made my skin crawl.

"Do you ever wonder why things look better without their skin on?" He asked after a short silence in a slow voice that seemed to creak and groan. "For instance, you can only really see the bones when you take them out. You can hear them better that way, too."

I cringed. The place was getting worse the longer I stayed.

"I came because I heard you want the Gatekeeper dead," I told him.

"I need him dead!" He barked. "His bones are calling to me. And you want him dead, too?"

"Yes."

He eyed me with interest at that. "If you're any good with a lockpick, we can help each other out. We can get into the Gardens of Flesh and Bone."

The name did not instill much confidence. "Why would we need to do that?"

"They say the Gatekeeper's magic." He shook his head in a slow, almost mesmerizing way. "I don't believe in magic, but I do believe in bones. And the best way to kill something is with the bones of its own. I've seen the bones of a dead Gatekeeper in the courtyard of the Gardens. The door's locked though. You'll pick the lock, and I'll collect the bones. Then I'll make some arrows and we'll kill the Gatekeeper. Sound good?"

Arrows I could handle. Picking locks I could handle. I nodded.

"You open the door. I'll kill things. Let's go."

He led me out of the house, back through town, and up a hill along the wall opposite the way I'd gone earlier. At the end was a gate set into the stone. It was rusty and covered with spider webs. Beyond it I could see a large, abandoned courtyard lined with pillars and sculptures of twisted, snarling creatures I assumed were some kind of daedra. There was also a massive skeleton lying at the very center. That must have been what he was talking about. It certainly looked like the thing that attacked the adventurers.

"Hurry!" He insisted. "Pick that lock open. I can hear them in there!"

"All right, all right. Hold on." I knelt down in front of the lock. It wasn't difficult. Clearly no one in the town had any kind of skill… that, or any interest in the "gardens." I didn't blame them. The place gave me chills.

The lock clicked and I had to shove the gates to get them open. The loud creaking sound of the metal echoed around the courtyard. When it faded out, it was replaced with a clattering, shrieking sound. Piles of bones lying here and there around the space rose into horrible, shambling creatures. Jayred shot one down, and it exploded into thousands of fragments of bone. I dodged the flying pieces as I drew my own bow. I fired at another of the creatures and it shattered as well. Soon we were surrounded by nothing more than a number of tiny, sharp, white chips. Jayred clomped over to the Gatekeeper skeleton and knelt down beside it.

"Here we are," he crooned. "From these bones I can make some arrows."

"And when will they be ready?" I asked him.

The Nord tilted his head to the side, as if thinking hard. Or listening to something. "Find me in a few hours. We'll kill the Gatekeeper."

I nodded sharply and left the Gardens, walking back down to settle on top of one of the rock outcroppings overlooking Passwall. Pulling my knees up into my chest, I watched the town's residents go about their daily business with a wary gaze. The Deadlands had given off the feeling of danger and death no matter where you went. The Shivering Isles didn't have that. It just felt… wrong. It was as if something, or someone, was watching me at all times. I hated that. At least Dagon's realm had the decency to let you know it would kill you. It was like the Isles were waiting for something with baited breath. The opportune moment to strike? Probably.

There was no sun, just the strange sky above me getting brighter. I had no way to tell how long I'd been out there. I kept my eye on Jayred's house, waiting for him to make an appearance. What must have been hours passed before I saw him step out the door. I climbed down from my perch and picked my way through the rocks and the swamp to reach him.

He nodded when I approached and said, tossing me a bundle, "The arrows are ready. Here are some for you, and I'll keep some. Let's go kill the Gatekeeper. We might die, but there's worse things."

I couldn't argue with that.

I followed him back up to the Gates. The Gatekeeper was waiting between the two doorways. It didn't move as we crept forward, and I prayed that we wouldn't be noticed.

Pointing to its other side, I indicated that we should split up and flank the creature. Jayred nodded and he slunk around one side while I went on the other. I was careful to hang back, hugging the edges of the yard and staying as far out of reach of the thing as I possibly could. I glanced over to see how my fellow hunter was doing, and my pulse quickened sharply when I noticed how much closer he was to it than I was. And he was too far away from me to give him any kind of warning.

That was when the Gatekeeper's head turned sharply toward him. It roared, the sound muffled by the skin covering its mouth, and grabbed Ice-Veins. I heard a loud, sickening crack as it squeezed the man in its massive fist. It let his body fall, his blood dripping onto the gray stones that paved the area. I kept as still as I could, barely breathing. Reaching over my shoulder, I carefully slid one of the bone arrows from my quiver and nocked it on my bowstring. The monster turned even at that slight sound. It charged at me, and I instinctively fired and jumped aside to avoid being snatched up like Jayred had.

There was a horrible, twisted gurgling sound and a boom as it fell back, hitting the ground. It was dead, my arrow lodged underneath its chin.

Walking over to the massive corpse, I drew my knife with a sigh. Shelden had said the keys were sewn into the body, hadn't he? Wrinkling my nose and trying not to gag at the foul smell, I cut along one of the stitches and peeled open the Gatekeeper's chest. Sure enough, there were two keys sewn in, side-by-side. One was embossed with faint pink designs in twisting patterns, while the other was edged in places with rough black spikes. I cut them out and got to my feet.

"So, you've managed to kill the Gatekeeper. Pity," a bored voice said from behind me.

I turned, clutching the keys in my fist, to see Haskill watching me with obvious disinterested. How he'd managed to sneak up behind me, I had no idea.

"Well," he continued in his monotone, "you'll now be able to enter the Realm proper. You'll notice there are two doors. One leads to the land of Mania, the other to Dementia. Enter through either one. The lands are quite distinct, but both are Sheogorath's domain."

I looked over at them, my gaze flitting back and forth between them. From the outside, at least, they both looked the same. "What is the difference?"

He pointed to the door on the left. "The lands of Mania are bright, vibrant, and full of color. You'll find its inhabitants reflect the land itself. Take care, though. While the citizens and creatures of Mania are colorful, they can often be quite deadly."

"And Dementia?" I asked, nodding toward the other door.

"The lands of Dementia reflect the darker side of its residents." He paused and looked me over critically. "I'm sure they'll welcome one such as you with open arms."

I glanced back at the two doorways. Well, neither one sounded particularly appealing to me at all. I would still have to decide on one in the end, however. The question was which one?

"You'll want to seek out the Lord Sheogorath," Haskill told me. "He does indeed have plans for you. Try not to disappoint him." With a nod, he vanished in a thick cloud of black and purple smoke. I coughed and wrinkled my nose, waving my hand to disperse the vapors.

Now, there was a choice to be made. I stared at the two keys still clenched in my fist. In the end, was it really a difficult choice? Always fight the enemy you can see. Carefully picking my way around the cracked and weathered bones of the Gatekeeper's old victims, I trudged up the stairs toward the door leading to Dementia.

The door itself was an impossibly black thing set deep into the wall. I fitted the key into the lock and pushed the door open. There was another short tunnel on the other side. Steeling myself, I took a few steps forward. Behind me the door slammed shut, making me flinch and look back warily. The sound echoed through the tunnel and faded slowly to silence.

At the end of the tunnel was a path lined with rocky outcroppings that were overwhelmed with tangled, sickly-green vines. On either side were tall, twisted trees. In the distance I heard strange shrieking and roaring sounds. I shivered and quietly drew an arrow. That was what I was expecting from a realm of Oblivion. As I slowly made my way down the road rain began to fall. My hood kept the droplets of water away from my face and my eyes clear.

For a long time, there was nothing more than those distant roars and the sound of the rain falling around me. That was when I heard a nearby growl, slow and deep. I stopped and slowly looked up at the outcropping to my left. At first I saw nothing. Then one of the trees moved, crawling forward with gnarled, branched hands. It turned its head, opening one horribly humanoid eye in what I assumed must be its head to stare at me. With the slow, deliberate movements of a stalking predator, it climbed down the rocky face. I drew back an arrow and fired at it. The arrow stuck, but the monster didn't seem to notice. It just kept coming. I took a step back, preparing to run. How fast could it move? Would I be able to get somewhere more protected before it overtook me? It reached the bottom. Rearing up, it let out a horrifying shriek that cut through the air.

An arrow buried itself deep in the creature's eye, an arrow that was decidedly not one of mine. The tree monster screamed and clawed futilely at it in an attempt to remove it. There was the sound of footsteps running up the path toward us, and three women appeared, drawing inky black swords. All three of them were dressed in impractical-looking black and iridescent-green armor, open in strange places to reveal their vibrant purple skin. They cut mercilessly into the creature, slashing deep cuts in its bark. Sap oozed heavily from the gashes. Then one of the women swung her sword at its neck, taking its head off with a dull thunk.

The body had barely crumpled to the ground when she turned to me, her vivid silvery-blue eyes staring at me from beneath the harsh outline of her helmet.

"Madgod's blessings," she said.

I was still too wary to lower my bow. Regardless of whether or not they had just saved my life, I was still in a Daedric Realm, and I wasn't about to take any risks I could avoid.

"Who are you?" I asked sharply.

Her face remained impassive as she told me, "We are the Mazken. Our duty is to ensure the demented remain orderly and respectful of our Lord Sheogorath. We have been tasked with escorting you safely to New Sheoth. Our Lord has been expecting you, Mara Fides."

I slowly lowered my bow. So they presented themselves as allies. That was good, for the moment.

"Fine," I said. "Take me to him."


New Sheoth was built on the top of a large hill, its walls rising in an imposing way at the very top of the cliff face. There were roaring waterfalls to the right of the path as we walked up to the city gate, sending cold spray into the air. I shivered and drew my cloak tighter around myself.

The guards who had escorted me through Dementia left at the city gate and were replaced by a new entourage. I didn't like it, but there was nothing I could do to refuse as they led me through the gate and into the city.

The first thing I saw was an enormous statue of a man. He sat on a throne wrapped in hissing snakes. Green-flamed torches encircled it, casting unsettling light and shadows on the dark stone. As we passed it by and entered the city proper, I took in my surroundings with a wary gaze.

The buildings were all tall and elegant, with arched stained-glass windows, but the whole place was horribly derelict. The glass panes were streaked with dark grime. Most of the roofs were collapsing in places and moss grew in thick patches on the walls. Massive roots broke through the pavement and curled through some of the walls. The streets were filled with sewage, and boards had been put in place over the patches so that you didn't step in it. I covered my nose with my hand to try to block out the awful smell that nearly made my stomach turn. As we walked past, I thought I saw some rotting bones in the gutter that looked suspiciously humanoid. I was glad when the Mazken hurried me through and up a set of stairs that led up wall.

This new part of the city was far different. It was a garden leading to an enormous palace made of cold, white marble. It had vaulting arches, tall windows, and iron spikes set on its roofs. The pathway leading to the front door was lined with torches bearing red flames on the left and green flames on the right. In places the lawn was torn up with clusters of sharp gray crystals. I could hear them humming softly as we passed. Odd.

These guards too left me at the door to the palace, and I entered alone.

Inside was a long hall. A red and green carpet running down the center of the room, surrounded on either side by burbling fountains. At the other end of the hall was a tree that was covered in glowing blue and gold mushrooms. A man sat in the throne set in its base. His hair and carefully trimmed beard were silver-white, his suit was royal purple and sickly green. He stood as I approached and clapped slowly, the sound echoing up into the ceiling in an almost mocking way. Haskill stood off to the side, looking as impassive as usual.

"Well look who's here!" The man in the suit said, laughing. "I'm so happy; I could just tear out your intestines and strangle you with them! I suppose an introduction is in order." He made a little bow. "I'm Sheogorath, Prince of Madness. And other things. You've probably figured that out by now. Let's hope so. Or else we're in real trouble… and out come the intestines!"