WARNING: ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM SPOILERS!
Pestilence, Plague, Poison and Power
So seeing as Astrid wanted me to carry on murdering people I had little reason to, I continued on my own way.
I thought I ought to drop by Kesh the Khajit with the items he had asked me for seeing as I happened to have them all.
He took them and mixed up some strange sniffing smoke so that I could talk to Peryite. I didn’t have much reason to, but figured it could be interesting.
Peryite appeared to me in the form of ghost rats and told me about how one of his followers had betrayed him and needed to be killed. Turns out that was what those weird spitting infected people were all about.
We headed over there and got to searching for the infected leader. They were all attacking us without cause, so we felt no guilt fighting back.
Somehow along the way, most of the band got seperated, leaving only Thonnir and myself to deal with the problem.
Thonnir and I managed quite well without the rest and rejoined them once we left the ruins. As a reward for the job, Peryite gave me a fantastic powerful shield that also worked as a magical ward.
Feeling a little overloaded with loot, I decided a trip to Riften to store some of it and perhaps do a little smithing was in order.
What would have been an uneventful trip turned to horror as on arrival we were ambushed by an Ancient Dragon.
The City Guards, Stablehands and Khajit Caravan all rushed to our aid, though the foe was powerful. I had no fear that we would overcome the enemy, but unfortunately this time it came at a cost.
A number of casualties were taken. Three City Guards were killed as well as Wujeeta and my friend Shadr: the man who gave me Snowberry.
After having been proposed a job offer Silus Vesuius some time ago, I finally decided that there was probably no harm in taking him up on it.
If he turned out to be dangerous, I was sure I could handle it. So I spoke to him and found that he was looking for the pieces of Mehrunes Razor, the weapon of Mehrunes Dagon.
The pieces were fairly easy to obtain. I paid off the miller in Morthal and fought my way through villains for the other two.
Here’s Mercer fighting a giant spider that was somehow trapped in a tent.
And a Word Wall that didn’t work at Dead Crone Rock..
We took the pieces back to Silus who had the brainwave of asking Mehrunes Dagon himself to repair it.
I went with him, thinking this could only be trouble. Prince of destruction and all that.
We arrived at the shrine and Silus began praying and asking for help from the Daedric Prince.
Mehrunes didn’t much care for Silus. He seemed to like me though, what with it being me who had recovered the pieces rather than set someone else about doing it.
He said he would repair the Razor and let me keep it, if I killed Silus.
This was a big moment, the first time I flat out refused the request of a godlike being.
A little nervous of the repercussion I told him I did not want to kill a man who had not wronged me.
Mehrunes decided I should die for this and set two Daedric warriors on me.
I thought he’d do much worse than that…
I killed his warriors and looted his shrine. Silus took the pieces of the Razor, thanked me with 500 coin and ran back home.
My powers growing all the time, I became capable of summoning Flamborghini and Stampy at the same time.
This pleases me.
I’m pretty damn good at smithing now too. So I made myself some dandy new gear.
At this stage I thought I best call in one last favour with my team. They had served me long enough, but it had all been building up to this.
Thorald Gray-Mane was being held captive by the Thalmor in Northwatch Keep.
I had promised to free him and had already left him for far too long.
With my small army I would march on the Thalmor (my cursed enemies), slay them all and free the innocent man.
Myself, Snowberry II, Kharjo, Thonnir, Esbern, Delphine, Mercer Frey, Flamborghini, Stampy, Barbas and Vigilance ready for battle.
We marched on, intent on war and slaughter.
Then tragedy! An ambush from an Ice Wraith startled Snowberry II. I killed the creature, but Snowberry II and the rest had been flanked by a band of Forsworn!
Once again, the cruel thugs robbed me of my precious steed.
Needless to say, I killed all Forsworn I found.
With some assistance from my hounds.
Finally, we made it to our target, Northwatch Keep.
I led the charge and killed many foes calling down the wrath of the skies with a shout before the rest of my team caught up. Esbern and Vigilance helped clear up most of the rest.
We found Thorald and led him to safety.
Though we found a number of other prisoners too, none seemed quite as interested in escape.
I suppose it didn’t matter seeing as their doors were open and their captors dead.
As intended, once Thorald was freed, I was to complete my end of the agreements with my companions.
The Rueful Axe for Barbas was kept in a cave very close to the Keep so that was our first stop.
Next was to allow Thonnir his revenge and kill the Head Vampire near Morthal.
Thonnir and myself delivered the final blows to the fiend.
Thonnir himself almost fell, but came away all right. We parted ways.
As reward, I was made Thane of the Hold.
Here’s Kharjo celebrating by sharing his coal walking skills.
The rest of us continued on, making our way across country. Of course, we still faced a number of threats, including a dragon whose soul I could not consume..
And a fort full of hostile ghosts who kept apologising for attacking us.
It was a good find. Inside was a Word Wall. As I approached it I noticed an odd looking panel on the floor. I thought to myself that it looked like a trap before foolishly stepping onto it and setting it off…
I fell some way into a wizards cage, finding myself among a lot of dead bodies.
I freed myself from the cage and dealt with the villain promptly.
He would have done better to lock the cage.
I took from a him a calming staff, so that I needn’t destroy any of the other possessed ghosts on my way out.
I returned to the Word Wall to collect, this time avoiding the trap door before leaving.
As it was on our way to our next port of call, we stopped at Halldir’s Cairn where it was rumoured that we could find the fabled Drum of Rjorn.
It was a horrible place where a ghost had been forcing people to commit suicide.
As it turned out, the ghost was Halldir himself, a powerful Draugr Mage. He seperated me from my team and battle began.
Alone I fought him until he duplicated himself into three versions of himself.
At which point I showed him two could play at that and summoned Flamborghini and Stampy to deal with his two counterparts.
The result was this:
The group journeyed on to return the Rueful Axe for Barbas. Vampires had infested the cave once more, but we saw to them.
Clavicus Vile was pleased to see the axe returned, but thought it would be more fun to offer that I keep it in return for killing Barbas.
Now Barbas had been something or an irritation, but also a loyal companion and worthy ally.
I was not about to kill him and insisted Vile take his axe and his dog back as agreed.
Clavicus Vile was a little disappointed, but accepted.
Barbas was put in his rightful place and rewarded me with a scary mask. That was good enough for me.
Our next port of call was to help Mercer Frey catch Karliah.
He insisted we travel alone inside the tomb however.
I suppose Thieves Guild business should stay within the Thieves Guild.
We made our way through, avoiding traps and fighting off a few Draugr.
It wasn’t too long before we found the place that Karliah was hiding.
I strode into the room and was shot down with a poison arrow, paralysed.
Mercer confronted Karliah alone.
Karliah left, admitting she was no match for him in single combat.
It came as a surprise, after all we’d been through that Mercer betrayed me. Though it seems he never did intend to have my help.
He stabbed me and left me for dead.
Surprisingly, Karliah came to my aid.
She had chosen to paralyse me and ask for my help explaining that it was not her that had killed Gallus, but Mercer.
She explained that the three of them had been a group called the Nightingales, a special secret branch of the Guild, and that Mercer had abused his sacred position.
She needed me to go to the College of Winterhold and speak to Enthir, to have Gallus diary translated as it was in a strange language she did not recognise.
I made my way there. Unfortunately Enthir was not there at that time, but I learned that there were some more secrets to learn about the School of Conjuration.
Phinis Gestor offered to teach me some in return for acquiring a Sigil Stone by summoning an Unbound Dremora and asking him to get it.
This wasn’t as easy as it sounded. The Dremora was not very co-operative and I was forced to beat him to a pulp twice before he agreed to help.
Once I had the stone, Gestor taught me how to summon Flamborghini permanently instead of for the two minutes I had previously been capable of.
I then purchased a few similar spells from him.
I found Enthir in Winterhold where he informed me that the only person who could help me was Calcelmo in Markarth.
This seemed promising so I set out.
On the way to Sky Haven Temple, I tested one of my new spells out. A new undead ally:
The road to Sky Haven Temple involved a few puzzles and traps,
but we made the journey in one piece.
Inside, we found Alduins Wall, which explained that the people of old ad defeated the great dragon with a Thu’um. One that I should discover and learn.
I was to ask the Greybeards if they knew anything of it.
Before leaving though, Delphine told me that she would be keen to rebuild the Blades, seeing as there were currently only two of them left.
She charged me with the task of bringing her warriors worthy of the cause.
Kharjo, who had come all this way with us all, fought side by side with us and been a soldier and trusted friend for so long seemed a perfect choice.
He took the oath and was proud to call himself a Blade.
That left me in the company of Vigilance, Stampy and the reanimated Forsworn woman. We exited the Temple through the back door to find a training area. No exit that way, but somehow, the dragons had discovered the location and possibly our intent.
The Ancient Dragon attacked without mercy.
We fought it off, though the Forsworn was killed (again)…
Not a problem though, I was easily able to bring her back (again).
After a look at the picturesque moon, it was time to head off.
Part 9 ‘Shadows and Secrets’ Here
Chapter List Here
