Ripples of Ancient Times

I entered the ruins at dawn.  Bandits had infested its upper levels, but the lower levels were secured by an ancient locking system, one that I had seen something similar to before.  A book on a pedestal gave the clues needed to open the gate.  I descended.

The writings of Shalidor were deep within the complex and this sanctum was guarded by a a powerful Dragur Lord.  This creature had a corrupted power of the voice.  Battle was difficult.  I left Lidia behind to guard the back passages as it was beyond her.  It was almost beyond me.  But my ability has returned for the most part, though some areas remain closed to me, likely forever.  My body has healed and grows strong, perhaps stronger than before.

I translated what I could of the ancient writing.  Shalidor was indeed writing of dragons.  He mentioned they were kindred spirit to something, but the something was marked out.  There is indication that somehow their creation is related to the creation of time itself.  And a master dragon is hinted at, named Alduin, a first creation of the All-Father, who turned on the Creator and sought to devour the world instead.

Exiting the ruins I discovered high on the mountain a word wall that called to me.  The word had just flowed into me, when a Dragon Priest rose and attacked me.  It was an even stronger opponent than the Draguir had been.  Lidia was with me, as I had not suspected any more threat.  Good thing.  It took both of us to bring this thing down.

We took the road back to Solitude.  I spotted a dog by the road and followed it to an old shack where the body of an old man lay on his bed.  A note mentioned he had contracted Rockjoint and he knew he was dying.  The dog took up with us.

On the way home, we happened upon a fort, Snowhawk, filled with renegade mages.  The dog doesn't like mages, though it seems to like me.  There are an awful lot of renegade mages around.

The dog took up with the residence in the Pale. Its collar says "Meeko".  Gregory and Meeko were soon fast friends.  I made a few trips into Whiterun to trade.  I sent Lidia back home since she was feeling very ill.  She needs rest.  And I decided to make a trip to the College.  It is later winter, but I hoped the passes were started to open and the travel would be easier.

I left in early evening and was attacked by a dragon near Lake Yorgrim, but it flew away.  I don't know if it lost me in the darkness or the trees, or decided I was more than a match for it.  I spent the next night in an unexpected Inn high atop the passes, a place called Nightgate. The next morning dawned clear. I spotted large Drarven ruins on the south side of Lake Yorgrim.  But I was starting to feel a bit sick myself, and suspected I had come down with Rockjoint.  So I pressed for the college.

The librarian of the college set to work translating the recovered writing of Shalidor.  And I had good news. Enthir had returned.  I thought to settle the argument between him and a fellow mage.  But he insisted on keeping a certain amulet, but decided he would trade it for a certain staff.  He said he had traded this staff to someone who he later discovered had gone rogue.  I didn't tell him, but I had already come across this man, and took possession of the staff.  It was in safe keeping back in the Pale.

I mixed up medicine for the Rockjoint and rested a few days, getting the translation.  Basically the same as what I had come up with.  Then I decided to make a quick trip out and back for the staff.  A young woman named Brelyna asked to tag along.  I allowed it.

Returning to the college I traded the staff to Ethnir for the amulet, the amulet I returned to Ormund for good will.  This was his first word of praise to me since the College recognized me as Archmage.  While there, I received word of a dragon attack on Dawnstar and the death of a woman Abelone.  Dawnstar has been hit hard by dragons. I don't know how much more then absorb.

Ormund shared that he would like to enter into my service, so I sent him and Breylna back home to the estate in Pale.  I had another journey in mind, a secret journey,. I planned to head south and then up the great mountain to seek out the monks who might know more about dragons.

I had heard tales of these monks, graybeards, recluses, masters of ancient art, the voice.  I wondered who they were and hoped I would find a living dragon lord in their midst.

I made first for Windhelm. Trying to enter the Inn, I was confronted by a man named Rolff who took exception to my armor.  Said it looked too damn elvish.  Its not elvish by the way.  But Glamdring likely is, of ancient times.  I had to fight the idiot just to get past him.

Inside I heard more from the locals about why they support the rebellion.  They seek to worship the first emperor as an ascended god, "Talos".  They recognize him as an addition to the other gods.  Most people are so mislead about truth of the world around them, naming things as gods that are not and ignoring the God in their midst.  The All-father, the One, the creator of all things.  These other so called gods are either rebellious sevants or misunderstood true servants.  Talos may indeed have been favored by the Creator, but he is no god.  But the Empires subservice to the Thalmor and the High Elves of their land, to subjugate the free exercise of religion is indeed a problem.  Freedom in faith, religion, philosophy...these are the cornerstone to any human civilization.  They must be preserved.

I overheard that there is a killer on the loose. I stayed overnight in the Inn.  Made sure the door was barred from the inside and kept a weapon handy just in case.  It was the 5th of Second Seed. Hopefully Spring comes soon.

The next morning I stopped in and spoke with Ulfric.  He makes a convincing argument for the independence of the north from the empire.  I had not realized how bad it had become following the death of Martin.  The empire has entered an alliance with the Dominion of the High Elves and they are oppressing the freedoms of people throughout the Empire.  Ulfric also confessed to having studied with the monks known as the Graybeards and having learned some ability to harness the word.  But I find myself still very reluctant to involve myself in the rebellion.

Outside, I came across a murder scene.  A young woman had been brutally assaulted.  As she lay near the hall of the dead and was murdered at night, I first suspected a werewolf or a Draguir.  I explored the Hall of the Dead, but all looked quiet and undisturbed.   I spoke with Helgrid who was preparing the body for burial and learned that the wound looked as if it had been created with embalming tools.  Curious.

I reexamined the crime scene and found a blood trail that ended in an abandoned house.  Here I turned up a journal of a mage.  Another rogue mage.  This one turned necromancer, but up to something insidious.  He was harvesting body parts for something.  And from the journal it appears he was once a member of the College in Winterhold.  This person must be found and brought to justice, so I resolved to stay and deal with this.

That night I patrolled the city looking to see if I could catch him in the act, but nothing developed.  The next morning reexaming the house, I discovered a secret panel and room I had overlooked before.  I also discovered a strange green amulet of a human skull.  Speaking with the steward for Ulfric, who is Jarl here, he pointed me toward two people who might help.  The first was most helpful. Viola shared that this confirmed for her suspicious she had been harboring for some time regarding the Court Mage.  And she said that she had seem him in possession of the amulet.  I returned to the steward and the mage was arrested.  I followed the party to the dungeon to make sure he did not resist and escape.  He still professes his innocence, but his connection with the amulet is hard to deny and the handwriting in the journal matches handwriting from his rooms.

Returning to the inn I decided to visit the common room before turning in for the night.  I noticed a dark elf who kept staring in my direction.  Turns out that she is known as Sun's Wind and is one of the chief advisers to Ulfric regarding matters with elves who live here.  She knew more of me than I would have guessed, having learned from Ulfric I found out.  I hadn't realized Ulfric was as informed of who I was as he is.  He knows of my slaying of various dragons and he knows too that I am the former Archmage of the Citadel.  This information, she shared, is known only to a few of his most trusted advisors and he directed them to leave me alone, that I had important matters to attend to.  She then shared something amazing.  She seemed surprised that I didn't understand what had happed that day I first returned to Whiterun after that first dragon.  She claimed that Ulfric told her, and just her, that I was strong in destiny and that my destiny would impact all the races.  That the monks had summoned me by voice.  It appears the overwhelming presence I had felt that day returning to Whiterun was not a dragon as I had thought, but the monks calling to me through the power of the Word.  Perhaps because the word had not yet been unlocked in me I didn't realize it.  But now the threads seem to come together.

And the tapestry is complex.  She turned to the sword, Glamdring, that I carry.  She asked if I knew is story.  I shared the man who gave it to me had said his family had somehow come into possession of it in the wars between the elves and men in the north.  She told me an ancient powerful story.  The sword is old, very old, and very noble.  It was crafted in a time almost from the beginning, by elves when they were noble, immortal, and in the graces of the Creator.  And the elves had come to lands west of here to do battle with evil twisted versions of themselves known as Goblins.  A mighty kingdom had been built, in a secret place ringed in mountain named Ondolinde.  Here mighty weapons were forged against evil.  Glamdring was the sword of its king, a warrior named Turgon.  It was lost to the elves when the evil one with is fire demons and dragons attacked a betrayed Ondolinde and turned it into dust.  She shared the sword was found and returned to knowledge of the High Elves during the time of the summoning.  The immortal elves were being summon homeward.  The sword she said came into the hands of mighty wizard and servant of the Allfather and was involved in mighty war against a powerful demonic lord.  She claimed it had been thought to be lost among her kin, until she saw it tonight.  She reasoned it must have been left behind by those who returned as summoned.

I asked her why if the elves were summoned home, they still remained here and how though long lived, they were long mortal.  The answer was the same.  The elves of today are descendents of those who refused the summons for various reasons and so lost the gift of mortality for their refusal to obey.  The elves of today she shared, are but a shadow of the glory that was lost.  She shared that the different elves are a product of mixed breeding but that even before the summoning, they had splintered into various factions.  But she shared the Altmer in particular, have fallen fartherest for theirs was the most impure of reasons for remaining here in what she called the middle of earth.  They sought dominion.

It was strange, perhaps my half elven blood, but I found with tears in my eye.  She rose and asked me to come with her and she took me to her home.  She opened a chest by her fireplace and unwrapped a strangely shaped sword with ancient writing on its blade.  She said it was a weapon of Ondolinde and none she had ever held was as sharp.  She told me that this sword had been found with Glamdring when it had been reborn to the knowledge of the elves in that ancient great war.  She told me it seemed only right, that in this mighty struggle against evil, that Glamdring and Sting be united again.  And she placed the weapon in my hands and closed my fingers around it.  And I could feel its strength.  I could say naught at this marvelous gift but to say thankyou.

Of dragons she knew no more.  No where they from nor why they remain or why they are here. 

The next day I set out for Ivarstead, thinking it may be time to visit the monks indeed.  I stayed at Gilfre's mill, strangely empty and silent without her.  I wonder where they laid her to rest.

I rode near Dragon Falls, but not did not take the road to the estate.  Not far past, I found myself ambushed by a Kajit.  Searching his body I learned that he was an assassin of the Dark Brotherhood and someone has placed a contract on me.  Overlooking Ivarstead I spotted the fortress of Nilhom, currently occupied by some Orcs who are not terribly unfriendly. 

I secured supplies in town and decided to search for the remain of poor man's sister.  On a hunch I looked in the river. I found what was left of her identifiable only by her unique necklace.

At the foot of the mountain of High Hrothgar I was warned that the path was treacherous yet because of winter.  Part way up I ran into a hunter who warned me that the weather was bad further up and the path likely unpassable, though he himself had never been to the top of the 7,000 steps.  And I can believe there 7,000.  I made it as far up as a place called the Moonforge before being forced down by the weather.  The trip will have to wait for spring to break.

Coming back into Ivarstead I heard a rumour of Drarven Halls to the north that are supposedly in good shape.  But before searching such out, I returned north to the college to report on the arrest of the Court Mage of Winterhold.  While I was there we came under attack by an elder dragon.  Great powerful beast.  It took the combined might of the mages and myself to bring it down.  For the better part of two hours we battled the beast from the battlements.  At one point I was so frozen by its breath I had to retire for a bit to regain my strength.  But in the end it made a mistake and grounded and we were able to corner it and kill the beast.








On the 13th of 2nd Seed, I was back in Ivarstead seeking more information on the location of the Dwarven ruins.  They are supposedly on the lower slopes of the mountains to the north.  We'll see.