Atreyu’s Photo Diary – Skyrim Part 40

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WARNING: ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM SPOILERS!

Debts to Pay

I was back on Solstheim with a couple of things to get on with. Neloth needed his research and Ralis was waiting for me to see his progress at the excavation. I stopped there first as it was just by Raven Rock.

Ralis didn’t seem too pleased to see me. I wondered what was wrong.

He told me that the dig had been going well until the miners were woke up a group of draugr. He was the only survivor.
Beyond that, he believed that they had reached a dead end with no way of going further.
He asked me to look into both issues.
Draugr set on me as soon as I stepped inside the tomb.

In the uncovered hall lay the bodies of the miners while the group of undead stalked waiting for more victims.

They would get no such pleasure from me.

After clearing them out I found that there was a clear doorway at the end of the room, but it was blocked. There must be some way to open it.

I went out and spoke to Ralis to see if he wanted to help me look, but he simply sent me back in to sort it out.

I found that the switch keeping the door closed was being held down underneath a skull.
Removing it opened the door.
On the other side was a set of boots.

The boots were one of Ahzidal’s relics. They allowed their wearers to walk on water.
I took them and went back out to Ralis.
He was pleased that I had opened the way, but then told me he would need more money in order to hire more miners and fund more digging.

He wanted 2,000 gold. I handed it over and he told me to wait to hear from him again.

Finally, I went back to Tel Mithryn where I found a group of ash spawn attacking.

I removed the threat then went inside to speak to Neloth.

He gave me 250 gold for the briarheart memories before we spoke about the attack.
The ash spawn a moment ago had not been the first, and had also been responsible for Varona’s end.

He gave me a ring with which I could track down the source of the attacks. If I was close to it, it would reveal itself to me as long as I wore the accessory.


I put it on and began wandering about Tel Mithryn.

Behind the town I found a few more ash spawn.

I thought there might be a secret cave somewhere here, but nothing of the sort.
I wandered around a little more and found a small cemetery. The source seemed to coming from one of the graves.

After destroying the spawn here, I found a heartstone laying in a coffin belonging to someone named Ildari.

I reported back to Neloth.

He explained to me that Ildari was a previous apprentice. She had died during an experiment attempting to replace her heart with a heart stone. Neloth imagined that doing so would increase her magical powers and hoped to have the operation himself if it was successful.
He wondered if she had actually survived the process and was now the one behind the attacks.
Using a mysterious spell, he tried to locate her.

He told me that she was in Highpoint Tower and tasked me with killing her. He specifically asked that I come back with a good story about how I did it.
I set out, a little skeptical that she deserved death. Perhaps she could be reasoned with.

I found another group of netch hunters.

Again, I opted to watch.

The hunters did not fare well.


One of the hunters was carrying a jug of milk. I realised that I had not seen one since coming to Skyrim.

I arrived at Highpoint Tower. Ash spawn guards were ready for intruders.

I found it curious that in this tower, I had to go downstairs.

Wandering about I found part of Ildari’s diary.

Clearly vengeance was on her mind from early times.

The place was crawling with spiders and full of traps.

I found another diary entry.

It seemed that the heart stone might have been driving her insane.
Around were the remains of some of her prisoners.

And one survivor.

Niyya was one of the miners that had been captured after showing kindness to Ildari. She was the last alive. I set her free and pressed on. Before she left, she asked that I give Ildari a slow death.
In a large chamber Ildari herself warned me off before setting a group of ash spawn and an ash guardian on me.




I found another diary segment in Ildari’s study area.

It mentioned poisoning Neloth’s tea. Neloth had been saying that his tea did not taste as good since getting his new steward and Drovas had seemed strangely keen to take the job.

If that was a problem, I’m sure it could be solved later. For now Ildari had to be stopped.
I confronted her and as I did so, some of my tribe came to my aid.

We bested her and she lay on her knees before me.

The only way to end her for good was to tear out her heart stone.

She was defeated and her threat was ended.

Something made me head north rather than directly back to Tel Mithryn.
I found a cave where a couple of women were sat outside.

One of them, named Rakel warned me off at first, but after a moment realised that I was a werewolf.

She welcomed me as one of them. I noticed a few more men behind them. This seemed to be a werewolf sanctuary of some sort.
I spoke to their leader Majni, curious to learn about them.

He said little, except that they were loyal to Hircine and that he had for sale some rings that were of specific use to those with Beast Blood.




I bought myself a Ring of the Hunt, as it seemed the only one that might actually be useful.
The other female Hjordis told me that she used to belong to another pack who made their home slightly north east of here, but they had been wiped out by werebears, forcing her to seek companionship elsewhere.
It seemed odd to me that these people chose to lives as outsiders, but who was I to argue with their ways if it made them happy.

With that I began my walk back to Tel Mithryn.
It seemed odd to me that dragons still sought to fight me after I had defeated their leader, but I was assaulted once again by an Elder.

Rather than slay it, I decided to prove my mastery of his kind by taming him.

Having shown him who was in charge I set down and carried on my way.

I climbed down a cliff side to find a dead Argonian in a camp by a mine locked behind a barred door. A letter was there too.

And another pendant.

The road back to the mushroom town was short and I returned to Neloth without event.

In gratitude for all my help, Neloth pronounced me a member of his household, which he assured me, meant I would have great honour in Morrowind should I ever go there with him. He also gave me a staff of paralysis, which I had little use for.
I wondered how valuable this reward was.

He then informed me that he was working on a spell so that he could conjure his own ash spawn. He asked that I go out and kill one to get a refined sample of its ash.
To do so he gave me an odd contraption.

Fortunately, the remains of those which had attacked not long ago were just outside the tower, so it took mere moments to grab some.


Neloth paid me 250 gold for the job and said that I should be able to buy the spell from him in a day or two. A clever way to get his money back and essentially have me working for free I guessed.

With nothing more to do here, I set off again, hoping the mining excavation might bring up some results soon.
My path took me past the ‘abandoned’ house once again, where I found that more Thalmor had taken residence.

I knew what to do.

As the excavation was still in progress, I had time to kill. Truly at a loose end for the first time in a long while, I began wandering the isle looking for things to do.
It was not long before trouble found me.

A blood dragon came down, just as I was being ambushed by a troop of rieklings.

The tribesmen fought well on the two fronts. The dragon did not last long..

I was surrounded by more than I could count, my own tribe-kin knocked out of this fight.

As the little fellows closed in on me, I was in a better position to fight back, not having to worry about ranged attacks.

I arrived at Snowclad Ruins, the place that I believed was where Hjordis of the Frostmoon Pack was originally from. I had been here before and fought werebears off, but it seemed that the whole pack had not been present.

For the sake of my wolf blood kin, I wiped out those that were here.


One tried to escape underwater, but I shot him down with my bow.

Unsure what else to do, I wandered some more. I passed a strange glowing felled tree on my way to Raven Rock.

I couldn’t see any clues to what was happening to it after a brief look and so went on my way.

I returned to Raven Rock, where I thought I might rest for the night. On arrival I was met by Mogrul and his bodyguard Slitter, who up until now had only been passive aggressive towards me.

He told me that Drovas owed him 1,000 septims and he was unhappy that I had given him the opportunity to slip away without paying.
Somehow, in his mind, this made it my fault and the debt fell to me. He said that if I did not pay up, he would send thugs after me to take it in blood (and likely from what I was carrying).
I was not particularly happy about being threatened in such a way or being held accountable for someone elses debt that had nothing to do with me. For me 1,000 gold pieces was not much to part with, but on principle I would rather keep the money.
I replied with my own threat. I said if he didn’t back down, I could just kill him now.
He dared me to try. If I raised my blade against him, the town guard would be on me in moments.
His warning held wisdom, so for now, I backed down, but I would find a way to end this quietly.
I would keep my money and he would no longer be around to threaten and bully the townspeople. I would also safe him a fortune in thugs for the sake of 1,000 septims.

Mogrul spent a lot of his time in the Retching Netch. There would be far too many witnesses there.

I would have to wait for him to be outside at a quiet time.

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