Part 23 Here
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WARNING: ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM SPOILERS!
The Soul Cairn and it’s Keepers
Having been weakened by the spell, I stepped into the portal while Serana followed me.
Skyrim never ceased to amaze.
The first ‘person’ I saw was a soul stood near the foot of the stairs.
I attempted to speak to him, but he had little to say, perhaps confused about where he was.
As was the situation with most of the inhabitants here.
Serana had explained to me that the Soul Cairn was a realm of Oblivion where those who had been soul trapped in life were sent to spend eternity.
I suddenly felt bad for those who I had cursed in this way. Then recalled that I had only ever soul trapped humans who deserved such a fate.
So my soul was currently in the possession of a group known as the Ideal Masters, who controlled the Soul Cairn. Dealing with them was how Valerica had gained entry.
These soul husks grew about the scenery. I wondered what they were formed of, but strangely they seemed edible. I did not partake.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but even the Soul Cairn presented guardians.
These bonemen perhaps were meant to ensure that everyone in the Cairn was indeed some form of dead.
I came across a soul who was slightly more talkative than the others. A trader by the name Morven Stroud.
I asked if he had anything to trade. We agreed that he would trade me an item from his stock if I could give him 25 soul husks. He explained that gold was of no use here, and these husks seemed to be the only thing that was tradeable.
I had often heard the phrase “when you die, you can’t take it with you”. This man had taken an entire cart and shop stock.
Serana and I carried on heading for what seemed the largest building, picking up husks as we went.
That was where we found Valerica, Serana’s mother. She was imprisoned there.
At first she was unhappy that Serana was travelling with a vampire hunter, but soon came to accept me.
She explained that to free her, three Boneyard Keepers had to be killed. They served the Ideal Masters and watched over the Cairn personally. Overwatching them was a great fearsome dragon named Durnehviir. She warned that he would likely attack if he sensed trouble in the Cairn.
Valerica pointed the direction of the Keepers. They were each near the tall bright towers.
The walk gave opportunity to explore a little while we were here.
Strange enormous soul gems floated above some buildings, while soul fissures spewed souls from them ready to be harvested.
I met another soul who was mumbling to himself.
His name was Jiub and he claimed that he was a Saint and a hero. He had died in the battle of Kvatch during the Oblivion Crisis. He told me that he was in the process of writing his opus, but on arriving in the Cairn had lost all of his notes. He asked me to find them all for him.
This seemed like a ridiculous task considering the size of the place, but I decided to keep an eye out.
Moving on, I found a horse skull guarded by a number of the bonemen, wrathmen and mistmen.
Having retrieved it and beaten the undead soldiers, a soul told me about the faithful horse Arvak.
He showed me how to summon him, so that now I had rescued him, he could serve me.
Soon after, I found the first of Jiub’s pages.
I approached one of the lairs of a Keeper and learned how to use the portals.
As I climbed the tower I found it surrounded by lost souls.
The Keeper was like a giant Boneman, garbed in dragon armour and armed with a dragonbone bow.
He was a tough enemy, but was bested by my blade. For good ironic measure, I soul trapped him.
By this time I had gathered enough soul husks to see what Morven had to offer.
Not much…
A few altars littered the Cairn..
On one I found a spell with which to summon one of these guardians.
I found the next guardian shortly afterwards, similarly surrounded by souls and similarly armed, though this time with a dragonbone mace.
As before, I fought and soul trapped him for good measure. Though he almost got the better of me at one point.
Continuing to explore I found another of the floating soul gems.
It was sealed behind bars. Perhaps I would need a spell or tool that I could acquire later to get inside.
Rather than wait, I found that I could climb up the side wall instead and approach it.
As I came near, the gem blasted me with a life draining energy.
In a chest that lay beneath it, I found an unusual soul gem fragment.
I pocketed it and dashed away from the attack of the gem.
My goal was the final keeper. I sought him out and found he was armed with a dragonbone battleaxe.
With him defeated and soul trapped, I could return to Valerica.
A little exploring on the way furnished me with another page, another reaper gem and another spell tome.
Once I had picked it up, I was reminded exactly what a wrathman was when two attacked from behind.
This grim place was both fantastic and horrific.
I returned to Valerica who was surprised that I had been successful.
She told me that the Elder Scroll was inside the prison. We should be wary of the dragon. I was wondering why he hadn’t already made an appearance.
I suppose, he was waiting for us to come to him.
Durnehviir summoned more of the undead followers and engaged us in battle.
Perhaps he was not aware that I was the slayer of Alduin.
As I waited to absorb his soul, I was curious to see that he simply vanished rather than relinquish it.
Valerica explained that as an undead immortal dragon, Durnehviir was unlikely truly destroyed. His energies were simply displaced until they could reconstitute themselves.
Not knowing how long that would take, we decided to grab the Elder Scroll and leave. Valerica told me that I would be able to retrieve my missing soul fragment if I found the soul gem in the Cairn that contained it. Touching it would return my soul to me. She pointed me in the right direction and I set off.
Waiting outside of the prison was the dragon, reforming before my eyes.
His hostility seemed to have gone. I approached him.
He told me that he had never been bested in battle before and respected me as his vanquisher. He offered his service if I could grant him his desire to return to Tamriel.
Having been trapped in the Cairn for so long, he missed the skies.
I accepted him as a new powerful ally.
Serana was keen to leave, but I wasn’t about to go anywhere without getting my soul back where it belonged.
We found it below another of the giant soul gems.
Exploring the Cairn had given me a couple of questions that I wanted answers to.
These giant soul gems, the reaper gems, the bonemen. What were they all about?
I had little intention of returning here once I had left, so decided to make the most of it, hunting for a few things. I would leave Jiub’s pages however. He had eternity to find them, while I had pressing matters to attend to.
I found a strange building that was continuously being struck by lightning.
It had a place to put the reaper gems, but doing so gave no result. Maybe I needed more.
I explored further.
At this stage I had found quite a few of Jiub’s pages and felt it would now be a waste of time not to seek the rest. In retrieving one, I figured out how to make the gates work. A blast of magic.
Jiub was thrilled to have his notes returned to him.
As thanks, he gave me his locket, which imbued me with greater stamina.
He also gave me the only finished copy of his Opus.
I still had to finish looking into this reaper gem business, so exploration continued.
The body of a dragon priest it seemed…
Having found a third gem, I returned to the building.
I placed it with the others and immediately a Reaper rose, flanked by bonemen.
Serana and I fought them successfully and were left alone in the room.
Apparently, my experiment had been fruitless..
Hopefully the death and soul trap of the Reaper would serve some use to the residents of the Cairn.
It was finally time to leave the Cairn.
I rode my new steed outwards, back to the land of the living.
Part 25 ‘Spirituality, Lost Souls and Skooma’ Here
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