"Sorry, but I'll have to disagree." Vardall crossed his arms while answering. "Two-hand weapons are far better."

"Only for people like you, my friend, who has all those big muscles." Inigo replies to Vardall.

After leaving Fort Dawnguard, Vardall and the rest of his group decided to take a carriage from Riften to the city of Dawnstar, to arrive more quickly in Dimhollow Crypt. On the way, Vardall revealed to Inigo that he was a Dragonborn, and surprisingly, Inigo reacted like it was a normal thing to him. Vardall didn't know if Inigo simply was sceptical or not. Arriving in Dawnstar, they all went on foot until the crypt. During the way, Vardall and Inigo started a friendly discussion of which type of weapon was the better one: One-handed or two-handed weapons. Vardall was obviously a great two-handed defender, while Inigo was more on the one-handed side.

"Actually, my muscles aren't that big, I just use my magic to better handle my greatsword... but that doesn't come to this case!" Vardall quickly returns to the subject. "While I admit that a two-handed weapon doesn't have the speed or agility of a one-handed weapon, the strike of a two-handed weapon practically has the strength of a god."

"I agree with that, my friend. But two-handed weapons don't have a big benefit that one-handed weapons have."

That caught Vardall's attention. "Which one?" Inigo clears his throat to talk. "Using a weapon in only one hand leaves the other hand free to perform rude gestures."

Vardall opens his mouth and tries to talk, but his words stay on his throat. He only mumbles a little until he finally admits. "Okay, that's a really good argument… BUT..." Vardall wasn't going to give up so easily. While Vardall and Inigo keep discussing with each other, behind them, Lydia, Sofia, Arissa, Lucien and Bran were listening to them.

Lydia sighs. "How much longer will they keep discussing this?"

"Who cares? This is very fun." Sofia quickly answers and returns to hear more of the discussion. Lucien and Arissa also were paying very attention to that.

Lydia grunts in frustration. "I'm surrounded by kids..."

Fortunately for Lydia, she didn't have to worry about that for too long, since the group were getting close to Dimhollow Crypt.

"I guess this is the place." After getting up a few staircases, the group was in front of a big cave entrance. Bran barks in confirmation with Vardall's words.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sofia was quite excited to enter this place. Inigo, however, was quite concerned.

"Everything okay, Inigo?" Vardall's words call Inigo's attention.

"Yes, my friend. I'm okay." Inigo quickly speaks. "I just don't have good memories of places like this."

"And who has?" Arissa jokes a bit. Vardall looks back to Inigo. He understands very well how bad memories can affect someone. "This is going to be a problem?."

"No, I assure you that, my friend. I don't fear places like this, I just don't feel very comfortable." Inigo answers. Vardall nods his head. "Very well. But if something happens, let me know right away."

"I promise, my friend." So the group enters Dimhollow Crypt. Once inside, the place was much more of a cave than an actual crypt. They immediately hear the conversation between two vampires.

"Get down..." The whole group crouches as they see the two vampires on one side of the cave. The vampires were in plain sight, next to a body and didn't notice anyone.

Given the vampires exposed position, Vardall has a plan. "Inigo... Arissa..." He whispers while signals with his head to both the vampires and looks to both the rogue and the Khajiit. Arissa and Inigo understand the plan and nod in agreement, both preparing their bows.

Getting ready, Arissa fires an arrow and hits one of the vampires on the head, killing it. The other vampire immediately gets in alert and looks to where the arrow was shot, but before he could do anything, he's also hit on the head by an ebony arrow fired by Inigo.

"Great shot, you bo..." But before Vardall could congratulate both his friends, they're all attacked by a strange and creepy black dog. Right before the black dog attacked someone, the husky Bran charged upon him and made him fall to the ground. Taking this chance, Vardall kills the black dog with a lighting spell.

"What is that?" Lydia touches the black dog corpse with her sword, checking if it really was dead.

"I don't know, but it smells bad." Inigo says. That wasn't important now, they all needed to proceed. Opening a gate, the group goes deep and enters the crypt itself. They fight several things inside: Draugr, skeletons, more vampires and those black dogs, and a giant frostbite spider.

They all reach the deepest part of Dimhollow, and after killing more vampires, they all saw themselves upon a strange structure, surrounded by several braziers and stone arches "This is fascinating." Lucien certainly would want to stay here and study this place. "If I needed to guess, this place must be from the Third Era."

"So it's very old and very strange." Vardall then saw a small pedestal in the center. Looking once again at the architecture and positions of the braziers, he had a strange feeling.

"Given my knowledge and experience with places like this, I think this place was built for realizations of rituals." His words called everyone's attention.

"What?" Lydia was confused, just like the rest, less Lucien, who took a better look around that place. "I think Vardall is right. The disposal of all these items doesn't look like something random. It's something ritualistic, for what purpose I don't know."

"Perhaps to hide some type of artefact?" Sofia asked. "That Stendarr Vigilant believed the place hidden a vampire artifact."

"Maybe that will give us the answer." Vardall then proceeds to the small pedestal and gently puts his right hand upon it. At the beginning nothing happens, but after a few seconds, a metal spike exits the pedestal and pierces Vardall's hand and even his steel plate gauntlet.

"Vardall!" With the sudden blow, Vardall yells in pain and falls on your knees on the floor. His friends obviously ran to him to help him. From the wound on Vardall's hand was obviously dripping blood, upon and even inside the pedestal. Vardall noticed that. From the time his friends reached him, the metal spike retreated itself back into the pedestal and released Vardall's hand.

"My Thane, are you okay!?" Lydia was heavily concerned, just like everyone. Lucien even was already with a healing spell steady on his hand, ready to heal Vardall.

"Yeah... I'm good." Vardall quickly uses a Heal spell in his hand to close his wound and stop his bleeding, but let's a scar. He does that and watches his flesh being regenerated and closing the wound, but leaving a scar. Healing spells never was one of Vardall's strong knowledge. During his life inside the Circle's Tower, he learned only the basics of healing. During the Blight, Wynne taught him more about healing, since that was her speciality. And while Vardall still was far from being a healer at the same level as Wynne, thanks to her he learned several new spells and tricks that were very helpful during the rest of the Blight.

Vardall felt his heart a little more heavy now thinking about Wynne. He never met his mother, since she disappeared while Vardall was still a small child. He found in Wynne the mother figure he so much wanted, and he can only think about how much he must have disappointed her by doing what he did in Thedas, not just by attacking the Circle's Tower and killing several Templars, but also...

The feeling of Bran licking his face brought him back to reality. "I'm okay, boy. I'm okay."

Getting up, only now Vardall realizes that they're now surrounded by a strange purple fire that emerged from the ground.

"What is this?" Vardall asks his friends.

"I don't know, but my guess is that your blood activated this." Lucien told Vardall.

"Hmm..."

Lucien noticed a change in Vardall's posture. "You're okay, boss?"

"Yes, it's just... I don't like very many types of magic that involve blood." Even with Vardall having the knowledge in how to use blood magic, he never would do that. Blood Magic involves demons, and while he admits it has some benefits, the costs are too high.

Vardall carefully touches the fire. Surprisingly that didn't harm him and only gave him a very good warm sensation. Looking at his surroundings, he notices that the fire extends itself until close to one of those many braziers. Finding that odd, Vardall gets close to the brazier and tries to move it, which surprisingly works, and when the brazier is touched by the fire, it is ignited, at the same time that the fire trail extends itself close to another brazier.

"Hah... are all these puzzles always this easy?" Vardall does the same with the other brazier, and the same happens. He continues to move the braziers to the fire one by one, until all of them are lit. After that, the center part where that pedestal is located opens and more of that fire leaves. In the next seconds, from where the pedestal emerges a strange shaped pillar and everyone is caught by surprise when the ground beneath them retracts downward a little.

"Everyone's okay?" Vardall asks.

"Yeah, we're good." Arissa confirms as she checks everyone. "That just caught us by surprise."

Looking to that strange shaped pillar that was revealed when the ground retracted down, Vardall approaches it, and Lucien goes with him. That thing, also as the rest there, looked really old, but still strong and resilient.

"This place never stops to surprise me..." Lucien was recording all of this in a small journal he has. While he does that, Vardall touches the stone pillar and runs his hand upon it. Suddenly, a part of that pillar starts to move. Vardall and Lucien retreat a little while the rest steady their weapons to any type of attack.

The frontal piece of that pillar also retreats to the ground, revealing that inside was a mysterious woman dressed in black. So this wasn't a pillar, it was a strange type of sarcophagus. Right after that, the woman slowly awakes and tries to move, but falls with her knees on the ground. When that happens, both Vardall and Lucien see an item the woman was carrying on her back that made both of them widened their eyes. She had an Elder Scroll.

Vardall still knew very little about the Elder Scrolls, but he knew they were objects of extreme power, not something that anyone should have with them. While Thedas had its share of powerful items, none of them could be compared to an Elder Scrolls, at least none of those he knew about.

At this moment, Bran assumes a more hostile position and roars to the woman.

"Calm down, boy..." Vardall whispers to Bran and pet him gently, trying to calm him down. Bran seems to acknowledge a little, as he stops roaring but doesn't leave his hostile position.

The woman starts to get up right after Vardall deals with Bran. As Vardall looks at her, the first thing he immediately notices are her eyes. Now Vardall understood why Bran became more hostile so suddenly: that woman was a vampire.

But Vardall didn't care for that at the first moment. That woman was incredibly beautiful, with black hair and very pale skin, her vampiric eyes giving her an extra beauty. Vardall lifts both his eyebrows and opens his mouth slightly, also feeling his heart start to beat faster, something that only happened when he was close to Leliana. But he quickly regains his focus. As much as he liked some silly romantic thoughts, this wasn't the best place or time for them.

After regaining a little of her senses, the woman finally notices the group of persons in front of her. "What... Who are all of you?"

Vardall assumes a more casual feeling, but still pays attention to any surprise attack that woman might try. "My name is Vardall. Those over there are my friends."

"Who... send all of you here?"

"A man named Isran."

"That's not a name I know. Is he like me?"

Vardall laughs. "From what I heard about Isran, he would prefer death to being a vampire."

"You already noticed I'm a vampire?"

"We already had our fair share of encounters with vampires to identify one. Besides... your pretty eyes gave you away." Vardall jokes as he smiles. Well... it was not a joke entirely. The woman didn't react to the joke, staying serious. Vardall also returned to a more serious state. "The Dawnguard will want me to kill you." At the same time, Bran barks.

The woman crosses her arms. "Not a fan of vampires, aren't they? Look, if you kill me, you will have killed one vampire. But there's something bigger going on, and I can help you find out what it is."

Vardall sighs. "Why do things like this only happen when I'm involved? Alright, what do we do?"

Lydia widened her eyes. "My Thane, you can't be serious to believe in this vampire!"

He looks to Lydia. "Other vampires we're looking for her, and it's not every day we bump into someone who has an Elder Scroll. My intuition is telling me that something really bad is going to happen if we don't help her."

"I agree with Vardall for us to check this. Anything related to an Elder Scroll can't be ignored." Lucien said to Lydia. She didn't like this, but Vardall already had made his decision and Lucien had a solid point. "As you command, my Thane..."

"The Elder Scroll is part of this problem. I can explain more later." The woman was watching all of this and Vardall could swear he spotted the signal of a smallest smile on her face.

"My family used to live on an island to the west of Solitude. I would guess they still do. By the way... my name is Serana. Good to meet all of you."

"Very well, Serana." Vardall smiled. "These ruins always have another exit. I suggest we look around."

Serana nods. "Good plan."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Serana. My name is Inigo." Inigo told Serana. She seemed a little confused for some moments, as she never had seen a blue Khajiit before, but she didn't care for that. "Thanks, Inigo."

"Now let's get out of here, shall we?" Sofia said. "This place is giving me chills."

"I agree with Sofia, let's go." Arissa was the next.

Vardall nods and looks around, sporting another way in the crypt, probably that leads to another exit.

"There. Let's go."

Everyone moved that way, Serana following them closely. Arriving in a place with some staircases, they saw some strange statues of a sort of creature with sharp claws and big wings. Serana widened her eyes after spotting one of those statues. "Wait!"

Everyone looked confused at her, and Vardall even lifted one of his eyebrows. "What?"

Suddenly, all of them hear the sound of one of those statues being broken. Looking back at them, they all see those same creatures that moments ago were statues now moving.

"Those vampires brought gargoyles with them!" Serana prepared some spells in her hands and everyone else prepared to combat.

Vardall doesn't want to lose too much time. "Fus Ro Dah!" He uses the Unrelenting Force Thu'um in one of the gargoyles, making the creature be thrown backward and hit a wall. That action by Vardall surprised Serana, who got distracted by a few seconds, but soon focused back in fighting the other gargoyle.

"Wuld!" Vardall now uses the Whirlwind Sprint to quickly arrive near the gargoyle. While the gargoyle still was trying to get up from the ground, Vardall hits the creature with a spell of fire and another one of lighting, one in each hand. Two strong spells combined were enough to kill the gargoyle.

Running back to help his friends fight the other gargoyle, Vardall can only see when Lydia hits the creature with her shield, making her lose her balance for a moment. Taking this opportunity, Inigo pierces the gargoyle's head with his ebony sword.

"Good job, Inigo." Vardall congratulates his friend while arrives. "Thank you, my friend." The blue Khajiit happily accepts the compliment.

Vardall turns his attention back to Serana. "What were those things?"

"Gargoyles. They're living statues that were animated by vampires. They also can pass themselves as just ordinary statues." Another strange thing about Tamriel. Vardall wasn't surprised by anything anymore. He definitely should start to note these things in his journal.

Now it was time for Serana to ask something. "Those powers you used against that gargoyle... They're a Thu'um, aren't they?"

Vardall nods. "Yes, they are."

"How do you know them? Did you train with the Greybeards?" Serana asks.

"Yes and no. I trained with the Greybeards, yes, but only for a little time. As a Dragonborn, I don't need training to use a shout."

Vardall's words made Serana lift her eyebrows. "A Dragonborn, eh? I knew you're not an ordinary Nord, your blood smells different."

His friends sounded a little concerned by Serana's commentary, but Vardall only shrugs and giggles. "I'll take that as a complement."

The group continued to move, searching for an exit. They all pass though some more places, fighting some Draugr this time. They all see that besides a vampire and a powerful mage, Serana also was a necromancer. Necromancy wasn't something every mage on Thedas knew or wanted to know, given the fact that it had a certain bad reputation outside certain groups like the Mortalitasi from Nevarra. Being the favorite student from the First Enchanter Irving back on Ferelden Circle of Magi, Vardall learned several things with Irving that weren't regular or normal inside the Circle. Necromancy was one of the pieces of knowledge Vardall learned and he was quite good in that. But now Vardall avoids using Necromancy, as it brings him some bad memories from his actions that made Leliana try to kill him.

After walking a little more and opening a gate, the group finally finds an exit and leaves Dimhollow Crypt.

Once outside, Serana takes a deep breath. She feels much better now outside that cave. "Ahh... I missed this. Even with this weather, it's good to breathe fresh air after all this time."

Serana's declaration gives Vardall a doubt. "Talking about that... How long have you been sleeping, Serana?"

Serana thinks as she puts her hand on her chin. "Now that's a good question. Let me know: Who's the actual High King?"

"Well... that's a big doubt now." Sofia says. Serana crossed her arms. "Great, a war of succession, glad to know the world didn't get boring while I slept. Who are the competitors?"

"Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak from Windhelm and Jarl Elisif from Solitude. Ulfric has his own rebel army while Elisif is being helped by the Empire." Lucien said to Serana, which made her heavily confused. "Empire? What Empire?"

Everyone there was now confused and reluctant. Vardall was the next to talk. "The Empire... from Cyrodiil."

"Cyrodiil is the seat of an empire? I must have slept more than I expected." Serana still was trying to process this information. As a vampire, time never really mattered to her, but that still was a quite big shock.

"Let's... just go." Serana said. Vardall and his friends all looked at each other, thinking the same: How old Serana is?

I suffer from color blind, so I always saw that fire from the Dimhollow Crypt puzzle as purple. If the color is another one, such as dark blue since I always mistake purple with dark blue and also the contrary, be my guest to correct me on the comment section and I will update the chapter and fix my mistake.