Atreyu’s Photo Diary – Skyrim Part 26

Part 25 Here
Chapter List Here

WARNING: ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM SPOILERS!

Gallows, Gullibles and the Glade

It felt silly, running errands while I was meant to be dealing with a dreadful vampire threat, but I suppose every small thing helps the effort. I approached Gallow’s Rock. I had been here enough times before.

The Silver Hand had repopulated it, clearly not willing to let it go.

I considered taking on beast form and clawing my way through them again, but instead opted to summon an undead dragon.

Durnehviir, in turn, summoned a number of undead to fight at his side.

The battle was overwhelming for the Silver Hand, so Serana and I were free to enter the fort.

We made our way through the Silver Hand, and once again into their main chamber where a new Krev the Skinner had been appointed.

This was the third that I had killed… I wonder if there had been any more in between.

As Sorine had expected, the plans were hidden there.

They seemed to detail how to create exploding fire bolts.

Having our prize, Serana and I moved on to clear out the bandits that Annekke had spoken of.

They put up a solid fight, especially their leader, but we overcame.

Next destination was Windhelm, to deliver the message about medicine. As we arrived I noticed a dragon soaring overhead. I watched for a while, concerned it may threaten the city, but it left alone.

I delivered the message to Quintus Navale, who kindly paid me 750 coin.

Quite generous.

I hadn’t noticed on entry, but as we made our way to the city gate, I saw the lifeless from of Angrenor Once-Honored left in the streets.

It had been a long time since his passing, I was surprised the city guard had left him so long. Once-Honored indeed.
I did what I could to give him a more appropriate send off.

Leaving the city, I could still see the dragon overhead ever looming.
I wondered what its plan was.

It seemed to be posing no threat, but I did not want to take chances.
I called for Odahviing to feel out the situation.

The presence of my ally did nothing to provoke the dragon, so I assumed it had no hostile intent.

Serana and I continued on our way, headed back towards Darkwater Crossing to return the news of the dealt with bandits. In an open area, unpopulated and quiet, the dragon finally made its attack.

I imagine it wanted to get us alone, away from the assistance of city watch.
It clearly did not realise that the Slayer of Alduin required no help from them.

On returning to the village, Annekke expressed interest in adventuring with me in the future should I be happy to have her with me.

Having it in mind that the Ancestor Glade was some way across the country, while Sylgja was a short distance away, I resolved to drop off her package before continuing my quest.

I arrived at Shor’s Stone late, where a traveller attacked.

With help from the village guard, the vampire and his gargoyle familiar were defeated.

I took a seat at the campfire and rested until the people of the village woke.

I must overslept as Sylgja was hard at work in the mine when I awoke.

The spiders of the mine had repopulated, so we fought together to clear them out again.
A miner called Odfel was killed by the monsters.
I questioned the wisdom of working so deep in the mine filled with these things.

In return for delivering her package, Sylgja gave me a gold necklace.

I had no use for it..

Serana and I were now free of the errands which were delaying our important journey to Ancestor Glade.
We set off hoping nothing else would distract us.

Shortly into our walk, I noticed a run down house which had a guard posted in it.

I was curious about the situation here and approached.
Expecting her to be a bandit who would assault me on sight, I was surprised when she simply told me to go inside if I wanted to ‘buy’.
My curiosity grew as I wondered what was on sale, and I entered. Serana waited outside for some reason.

Inside another guard warned me to keep my weapons to myself.

I entered the den. I could see pinkish smoke and could hear some horrible coughing.

I spoke to the woman inside the caged bar. She told me that this was Redwater Den, the only place to get the their unique brand of skooma.
I asked for a free sample, she obliged.

Knowing its addictive quality and hearing the sound of the other patrons put me off trying it.
The woman told me to take a booth and enjoy. I decided to have a nose around.

In the first booth was a dead woman.

If I hadn’t been sure about trying it before, I was now.
There was also an Imperial who had deserted at Helgen looking worse for wear…

and a nobleman, who was the source of the coughing..

At the end of the corridor, I could see tunnels behind a locked door which probably led to the brewery.

As I was here, I believed it wise to investigate.
I swiped a key from the attendants pocket and slipped through the door.

As suspected, the brewery lay beyond the gate.

Complete with dead bodies.

It wasn’t long before I realised that these were vampires and that most of their guards were hypnotised thralls.
I crept through them silently…

.. every so often having to cut a throat to keep things quiet.

I found a diary written by the hand of one Venarus Vulpin.

The skooma den was a front for these vampires to capture prey.

Those that were not fed upon immediately were useful soldiers.

I wasn’t sure why Serana had stayed outside, but it was no matter. I summoned Kenny to aid me.

Which was useful, as I foolishly fell into a trap and was almost killed.

Deeper into the caves was a large hall.

There were a few vampires, thralls and skeletons in here. I attempted to sneak through, but an ancient vampire hidden in the shadows spotted me.

It was time to finish playing quiet.

Besides, Vulpin was among those here.

He was a tough opponent. We exchanged some blows while his allies flanked me.

I felt slightly outnumbered, so I summoned Felldir the Old.

The hero spirit did not last long against the crowd of undead however and moments later they were all upon me again, leaving me barely enough time to recover my strength.

Drastic measures were needed I felt. These vampires were fans of necromancy. I would show them how powerful the school of magic could be.
Durnehviir came to my aid.

As I had summoned him, he summoned his own warriors to even the odds.

The battle now on more even terms, we pressed our advantage and I cut Vulpin down with a mighty blow which sent him falling at the dragon’s feet.

A breath of relief and I found more of his notes.

It seemed that he had never secured the chalice. I could not find it among his possessions.

In the next room, I found the spring.

There was no more for me to do here, so I moved on.

I had made my way around to the rooms behind the Dealer’s cage.

Fortunately I had silently sneaked in and she did not notice.
Before she noticed, I had slipped past and got back to the area she expected me to be in. Only now Serana had decided to enter the den.
The coughing had ceased, so I took another look in the booths.
More dead.

Yet, the attendant seemed to have more senses about him now. Perhaps killing Vulpin had released the thrall of his curse.

It was time to leave.

Lakeview was on the route to Ancestor Glade, so I stopped there shortly.
Extremely annoyingly, a giant had wandered in, frightened off my horse and slaughtered my cow and chickens!

I showed him the error of his ways.

There had been many distractions, on the journey, but finally we arrived at the Glade.
At first sight it was quite unimpressive.

Until we rounded the corner and saw the real Glade.

Waiting to be used was one of the draw knives.

I used it to extract some of the bark that Dexion had mentioned.
Walking about the Glade with it attracted the swarms of moths to my side.

The more I gathered, the more I seemed to glow with a strange aura.

With a great number of moths about me, it was time to try to read the scrolls. I approached the light to complete the ritual.

Unsure of what would happen, I unrolled the scrolls.




The location of Auriel’s Bow was revealed to me: Darkfall Cave.
I was frustrated. I had been there, had an awful time and come out with nothing. I had no idea that the silly cave I had explored for no good reason was where I would find this most important artifact!

As I spoke to Serana about what I had learned, I felt a great heat and flames appeared all about me.

I turned to see what was causing it and was surprised at the flood of vampires, thralls and the gargoyle that were rushing me.
Serana was equally taken by surprise and knocked out of the running quickly.

I was alone to defend myself.

It was a tough battle against many strong foes, but the Dragonborn was not going to be beaten this way.

Having narrowly escaped the unexpected attack, Serana and I had a bow to find..

Part 27 ‘Falmer, a Forgotten Vale and Frozen Foes’ Here
Chapter List Here