Part 29 Here
Chapter List Here
WARNING: ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM SPOILERS!
Four Shards, Three Closed Doors, Two Cultist Thralls and A Fabled Forge
Weighed down with loot and still carrying a schematic that needed delivering to Fort Dawnguard, I decided it best to make a return to trip to Skyrim before beginning my new mission of ridding the world or Miraak.
So I made my way back to Lakeview. I arrived as it was under siege from bandits.
The bastards killed my horse.
The only animal I had left was a sole chicken..
I dropped off the things I wished to leave and rode to Fort Dawnguard.
I woke Sorine who was happy to see that I had brought her the plans for the Dwarven Crossbow.
She told me the last schematic would be an upgrade to this and I would find it in the home of someone called Hrodulf.
By her bed I saw that she had some reading material.
The book spoke of a legendary Aetherium Forge, able to craft objects the like that had never been seen.
I had noticed Serana milling about as I had entered the fort and wondered if she’d prefer to go on another adventure.
Of course she did.
We found the dwarven ruins of Arkngthamz where our journey would begin.
It had been a while since I had been through one of these Dwemer strongholds.
Cautiously moving forwards, we heard a voice warning us to turn back. Old hat. It had never worked before, it was not going to now.
We turned a corner, where a spirit met us.
It was interesting that for a change, the warning was genuinely meant to be helpful, rather than a warning.
The ghost Katria told us that she had come looking for the Aetherium Forge before, but the ruin had claimed her life. I assured her that I could handle myself and she offered to accompany us. I accepted.
We had not gone far before we found her lifeless body where she had fallen.
Katria told me to grab her diary, as we would likely need it.
Evidence of her previous adventure here lay nearby.
Besides the dead, there were still some functioning Dwemer guards.
We found that some doors were controlled by use of these mechanisms. They responded to being blasted by my magic, so that was adequate.
Deeper inside, there were yet some living Falmer.
As we fought, Katria fell from the ridge once again, washed away.
As usual, along with Falmer, were chaurus.
Katria pointed out the place where she had fallen from after a quake.
She noticed her old bow had become snagged on a log.
I carefully retrieved it.
She told me to take good care of it. I assumed she had little need for it anymore.
In the next area we came to a large locked gate.
Katria explained that this was a tonal lock. It would be opened if the mechanisms were activated in the correct sequence.
Before her death, she had worked out the first two, but her incorrect guesses had caused the quake that killed her.
I looked around, hoping to find more clues.
A dead adventurer had gotten slightly further than Katria.
I imagined that this centurion might awake if I made a mistake on the lock.
I could safely activate the first three mechanisms anyway.
The last two would be tricky though. Although, a guess would be fifty/fifty, so it could hardly go too wrong. Assuming that there may be a pattern of sorts, I gambled on the top right.
Success!
Katria excitedly ran ahead.
Inside, we found a shard of Aetherium.
Katria said it must be part of a whole and that we would need to find more pieces in order to open the forge.
So with her research pointing the way to where we needed to go, Serana and I set out to gather the shards.
The first one was easy. At Deep Folk Crossing it was sitting out in the open, free to be grabbed. I was surprised it hadn’t been swiped sooner.
Katria appeared as I took it and seemed a little disappointed that I had got here first.
She said she would meet me at the next one.
We made our way to Raldbthar, another place I had spent too much time in already.
It seemed that more bandits had moved in since my last visit.
My team was unshaken.
Inside, the body of Alain Dufont still lay where I had put it.
Despite the bandits, and my repeated visits, Dwemer contraptions still survived here.
We fought our way through. Serana decided to raise Alain to help her, but he did not last long.
I was frustrated that we had to push so deep into the ruin to find this object I must have missed before.
Past the mechanical Dwemer guards, were Falmer.
We eventually reached a bridge that had been raised.
I attempted to repair the cogs that would work it, but they were broken beyond my skill. We were locked out, prevented from proceeding further this way.
I became frustrated, having come all this way to be stopped by cogs.
I slapped my head and remembered that having been here before, I had opened a back door which would take my directly to the deepest part of the ruin. Feeling foolish for not having thought of it sooner, I led my group back through the ruin, clearing out a few bandits we missed.
We climbed the cliffside to the lift which would bring us down to our destination.
Someone had locked it.
Not to worry I thought, though my frustration grew. There was one more entrance in Blackreach!
I knew that we would be able to gain entry through the Tower of Mzark, so we rushed that way.
Serana had not yet seen Blackreach and was in awe of the sights.
We also had to face the dangers that it held…
..until we reached the other back entrance to Raldbthar.
Once inside, I felt a huge relief, for a few moments.
I could hear Katria fighting off Dwemer constructs, but she was behind a wall that I had no means of getting through from this side…
As far as I knew, there were no more entrances to the place..
I was not going to be able to get in this way. I thought that perhaps if I activated one of the other Blackreach lifts, that the Radlbthar one might open itself to me.
We returned to the surface of Skyrim and climbed back to the top of the ruin to its lift.
It was still locked.
I began throwing my belongings at the cage, desperately hoping it might open at the sight of me losing my temper. Of course that did not work…
Finally, I found a solution.
I summoned Arvak into Skyrim and used his ability to pass through space to my advantage.
I was inside!
I opened the gate to allow my allies in and we took the lift.
Katria was there waiting among destroyed Dwarf spiders.
I grabbed the third Aetherium piece and we agreed to meet at the last.
Mzulft was our final destination.
Katria had led us to the Storeroom outside, which happily meant we need not traipse through the entire ruin again.
With all four pieces secured, we could now attempt to find the forge itself!
Katria had learned that it lay in the Ruins of Bthalft, so we were to meet there.
When we arrived, she showed me the place that the four key pieces should be placed.
I put them in one at a time, letting them slot together as they had been designed to do.
Nothing happened, so I took the pieces, now as one, back out.
The ground shook as I did so and we took a few steps away for safety.
The platform rose before us, revealing a lift that would take us inside.
The lift ride was longer than usual, suggesting that our destination was extremely deep.
As we emerged from the lift, we were astonished at the city we found hidden so deep underground.
Katria remarked that we were likely to be the only people to have seen this in 4,000 years.
More of these strange locks barred our progress, but knowing how to deal with them, they did not stop us for long.
On the other side of the gate was the Aetherium Forge.
To get a good look, we decided to switch off the steam that was pouring in.
Doing so awoke the Forge’s guardians.
We cut through waves of them until from the lava, the Forgemaster appeared as the last line of defence.
With him cut to pieces by attacks from all sides, we were free to use the forge!
The only aetherium that we had was the key used to gain entry. As such, we could only forge one item.
The forge came with plans for three, so a choice had to be made.
The Staff was tempting, but as a master Conjurer, I had little use for it. Why summon a Dwemer Spider when I could call on Kenny the Dremora Lord?
The Shield seemed like an extremely non-useful artifact. There was little reason why I would want my enemy to be indestructible.
Which left the crown. The ability to have blessings from two Standing Stones. This was something I could make use of.
I forged it.
Seeing the crown in my hands, Katria was satisfied that her work was done and felt that her soul could rest. She only asked that I let people know that it was her work that reopened the forge. I was happy to.
She faded one last time and the rest of us began our walk back out of the fort.
I had a plan for the crown. Having made it, I realised that if I wished to have two blessings I would have to wear it at all times. This was impractical. I preferred the safety of a helmet in battle.
However, wisely choosing which stone to connect the crown to would mean this would not be a problem. I decided to go to the Shadow Stone and have the crown take its blessing. This way, should I wish to turn invisible, I would only then need to wear it.
I then returned to the Steed Stone to pick up my own personal blessing, while the crown stored the Shadow power.
With what was meant to be a quick bit of fun with Serana finally at an end, it was time to get back to Solstheim where dangerous matters were requiring attention.
I intended to go back to Lakeview, drop of some extra baggage and bid farewell to my vampire friend, but as things rarely go exactly to plan, we stopped in Morthal shortly.
While there, I decided rather than trudge all the way to Falkreath, to buy a home here instead as Pactur informed me some land was available.
I was allocated a new housecarl: Valdimar.
It was a short walk to the plot, though slightly further from the town than I’d hoped.
This would be the site of Windstad Manor.
Soon enough, the basics were put together.
My new home was well on its way to being as magnificent as Lakeview.
Part 31 ‘The Dead, The Long Dead and the Dwemer’ Here
Chapter List Here
