The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 6

A Journey To Riften – And Barely Surviving

As soon as I crossed the mountains I left the snow and grim cold of Eastmarch behind me. The landscape became welcoming and instead of the ever-present snowberries there were actually flowers blowing on the Roadside. After a short stop at Kynesgrove I continued my way south. The land changed yet again. Sheer endless rock formations, spotted with hot springs and the smell of sulphur everywhere dominated my first impressions of the Rift. I had no clear idea how the hold would actually look like, nor its capital, but somehow I expected a more hospitable place. I've must been spoiled by the placid Whiterun.

Nevertheless I began collecting herbs. Without walking away too far from the road of course.

My senses began to become more alert the deeper I went into this unknown land and soon I spotted a giant's camp just besides the road - I never came so close to them! It was quite a surreal view to see these huge humanoid creatures stroll between this alien landscape, tending their mammoths. I did my best to pass them as quickly as I could. This wasn't the worst idea to have: a smashed carriage with the corpses of several travellers showed me clearly that the danger of this place was very, very real.

They totally ignored me though and after a while the road became pretty steep again and mountains began to build up in the distance. I realized I must enter the region the Rift actually became its name from. The road started to wind its way upwards and it became pretty hard to spot what might wait for you around the next corner.

Suddenly I heard a deep and hoarse roar. A bear! It must been very close, but I wasn't unable to spot it yet. Then it suddenly appeared right before me in the middle of the road. I sent away my firebolts and tried to gain as much distance to is as possible and dodging the strikes of his claws. The oakflesh spell I have learned shortly before helped me a lot too. It just does what its name tells. Well not quite. It hardens your skin to protect yourself from physical attacks. Some master mages are said to be able to make their skins as hard and impenetrable as dragon scales.

I finally landed the fatal blow on the bear, but my victory came for a price. Despite my protection spell it was able to wound me quite a bit. At least that gave me the opportunity to practice restoration magic.

This episode shouldn't be the last encounter with the dangers of the Rift, soon after more fights followed. Mostly spiders and bears but also one or two trolls. My confidence grew and I began to develop pretty good strategies to fight them.

A little setback was the discovery of a roadside watchtower which must been ran over by some enemies just before I arrived. Dead bodies and blood everywhere. I found a letter in there with a warning of a Stormcloak attack which was expected to happen soon. It seems that the tower crew just opened the letter when the attack happened.

Eventually I came to a settlement. It looked so peacefully! Smoking chimneys, a campfire with some people sitting around cooking a meal and chicken walking around the place picking for food. A chat with the locals told me I was in the village Shor's Stone, a small mining settlement.

One person there I found quite remarkable: A young nord woman, Sylgja, who had a bad fall lately when she was working in the mine. She came from a miner's family and her parents were living west of Shor's Stone in another mining village. I promised her to send her mail to them, since she obviously wasn't able to do the journey by herself. I also learned that the mine was temporary closed because some frost spiders which began to nest in it. Being pretty confident from my first few adventures I told them I would take care of the matter.

Ironically Shore's Stone was pretty well protected with guards patrolling outside the mine. Why no-one of them bothered to put and end to the spiders was beyond my grasp. Perhaps the proud soldiers were afraid of spiders?

Anyway, Inside the mine was quite a mess. Immediately after I entered it a group of spiders attacked me, and I barely had time to conjure a flame atronarch to distract their attention from me. Thanks to a generous use of healing and magical potions, and to an anti-venom I made at the Mages College, I was able to turn the tide. The miners, and especially the local blacksmith, who is kind of spokesman and de-facto leader of village, were quite cheerful about my success.

After a bit of trading and equipping myself I continued my journey towards Riften. The landscape was now looking much more friendly. A pretty misleading impression as I soon found out.

Just as the village behind me came out if sight I spotted a fort in the distance, blocking the road right before me. I saw a number of people standing on its walls but flags or banners. So I assumed they were bandits, got myself ready to fight and pondered my chances against them. Still caught in the moment I almost didn't realize a second group of bandits to my right, storming down the slope straight towards me!

I turned back and sprinted back to Shor's Stone. No point in getting into such a mess, outnumbered four or five to one!

The guards came to my assistance and within moments a fight broke out. I did my best to support them with firebolts and a summoned flame atronarch, but as quickly the fighting started, as quickly did the guards end it and all bandits laying dead on the ground.

My second approach to the fort proved me right: it was indeed occupied with bandits. They started shooting arrows at me from a surprisingly long distance and I countered attacking them on the walls and as they stormed out of the fort by running zigzag and keeping distance to them while fireing spell after spell. It was quite a long, tiring fight with a lot of shots exchanged, but many going miss too. As my concentration started to fade I switched to the Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson, one of the artifacts I found at Saarthal, which proved to be very effective against my opponents.

After the last bandit was dead, I set my foot into the now quiet courtyard. I was loaded with adrenaline and very euphoric about my victory, so I ran up the stairs to the leader's quarters challenging her for a fight too.

I was very, very lucky I got out of this alive.

Upon entering the room I was attacked by two opponents. My atronarch and I took out the first pretty easily but the second did land some serious blows on me before I even realized what was going on. I turned to the door in panic, ran for my life but suddenly the world blacked out around me.

It all happened so fast... When I came to me I was barely able to move from pain. I was freezing to the bones and feeling every part of my body aching. My tunic was crusted with blood. I almost blacked out again when I tried to get at my feet. I tried to focus on a healing spell. I knew I needed immediate treatment.

After I was able to stabilize myself I cleaned my clothes as good as I could. Only then I realized they robbed most of my belongings – and over four thousand septims!. All they left me was the clothes I was wearing and the herbs I collected. Quite ironic: the things with the least value for them would prove to be most useful for me to restock my items.

The rest of my way to Riften was uneventful but nevertheless tough. My healing magic helped me a lot but I still felt sore and terribly exhaustet. I must have lost quite an amount of blood.

Riften itself was rather disappointing: a filthy, run down city gathered above a smelly canal. To make things worse the city guard tried to cheat some money from me by inventing a “visitor tax”. I really wasn't amused by that at all.

In the city itself I got almost instantly approached by some shady figures. One trying to intimidate me, the other trying to make me steal from a local store owner. A really awesome welcome.

One of the few bright spots was a warrior lady called Mjoll the Lioness who told me about her oath to cleanse the city from thieves and corruption. Bold lady. I hope she watches herself. Her friend Aerin seemed rather concerned about her.

I got myself in order again and took a bed at the Bee and the Barb. As I closed my eyes I promised myself I wont spent too much time in this damn city.

The next day I did investigate if any of the merchants bought items the bandits did steal from me and indeed the Dunmer at the marketplace had quite a number, which he bought this morning without having an idea where they came from. He wasn't too cooperative though and I couldn't afford the price he named to get them back. And frankly, I didn't even wanted to pay for what actually belongs to me, even if I had the money. Quite upset I rushed off.

I had more luck at the local alchemist though even if it was pretty hard to find his store. Unlike everyone else, he put his store down at the lower level near the canal. He must not really be much interested in customers. Anyway. He had some good stock and after I bought a few ingredients from him with the little money I had left, he allowed me to use his alchemy-lab.

It didn't took long and my purse was recovering again.

Riften wasn't going to be the love of my life, so much I could say already. Actually I had the strong urge to leave that cursed place as soon as possible. Still I headed to the local Castle to connect with the court wizard. That lady was a total mess too. I don't think she is able to think coherent enough to get anything done. She asked me to return some of her items she lost - all across Skyrim! I agreed. Hoping I would at least get a decent reward for the errand.

Leaving the Riften Castle I really had enough of the city and went outside of its walls to gather some herbs and to inquire where to go next.

I discovered a road leading to the west, to the city of Ivarstead and over the mountains to Helgen. I knew though that Helgen – or what was left from it - was most likely was still smouldering ruins. But Helgen is not far from Riverwood and Riverwood not far from Whiterun – familiar grounds!

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 5

Windhelm

A look at the map told me that the next larger city in the area is the stronghold of the Stormcloak rebellion, Windhelm. It seemed to me being a pretty interesting destination, where I could learn more about the whole stormcloak-thing, perhaps even see their leader Ulfric again - after all we were at the same carriage bound to our executions! Also I wanted to make some coin with selling the potions I mixed.

The way from Winterhold to Windhelm was more or less uneventful, apart from the cold and wild beasts trying to kill me. Nothing new really! I tried to get access to one of these mysterious dwarven ruins (unsuccessful), had a stay at the Nightingale Inn (successful: earned myself a bed with playing the lute) and found a remote sawmill west of Windhelm.

Windhelm at night - at least the sky is colourful.

The city itself is already well visible from afar: A imposing block of massive and almost black stones. The whole place looks less like a capital but a giant, storm-battered ancient fortress. Not very welcoming really.

Inside the welcome wasn't too cheerful either. First thing I saw (apart from huge, crumbled stairs leading up from the entrance gate) was a group of locals taunting and ranting against the Dark Elves living in the city.

Wondering if that situation was typical for the city I went to the marketplace, talked with the locals and did trade a bit. People seem indeed mixed. Some did openly show pure hate against quite everything that isn't nord, others were more moderate and just want to live their lifes. Hermir, a woman working at the local forge, seemed to be quite enthusiastic to work so close to Ulfric. A life between being beheaded by his foes and enthusiastically adored by his follower: Quite a polarizing person!

I made a pretty decent sum from selling some of the things I found at Saarthal. I really felt life started to to turn to the better for me and making a living as mage was the way to go for me.

When visiting the local alchemist, a frail looking, old High Elf, he told me a story about a “White Phial” which magically replenish every fluid you put inside it. He said he also discovered already its most likely location, but his assistant wont let him go there. I guess he was right to do so since the old man looked far to weak to search for it by himself.

I offered to search for the phial for him, which he accepted. You should have seen the relief in his assistant's face when I left the shop instead of his proprietor!

The sun began to set slowly and I started looking for some accomodation. The Candlehearth Hall looked pretty welcoming when having a look inside I met a interesting you woman there called Susanna. We had a pretty pleasant, but rather short chat (she had to serve the guests) where she pointed me at the “New Gnisis Cornerclub” instead of taking a room here. Quite ironic, isn't it? Seems she doesn't shares the prejudices many Nord have about the Dark Elves. Bolt and impressive girl!

So I went there after a short stop at the local Dunmer pawnbroker, Revyn Sadri, who discretely asked me to return a stolen ring he found in his stock back to its legal owner Viola Giordano. I initially refused but what can I say? He did asked me to bring it back, not to steal it. So I agreed to break in her house and plant the ring where she can find it.

After playing some tunes for a bed at the Cornerclub I practised some magic and eventually dozed off to sleep.

The next morning saw me heading to the Palace of Kings where Ulfric resides. I was still pretty much put off from the sheer aggression towards the Dark Elves I saw the day before, but curiosity simply dragged me there. Being to Windhelm without visiting the Palace of Kings – no way! Also every Jarl who has at least a bit of self-respect does have a court wizard. So perhaps I could learn something new there.

The palace itself doesn't betrays its significance from outside. Its just as bleak and battered as the rest of the city, inside the throne-room however is as imposing as its suiting for a king.

Ulfric was busy as I entered. I overheard a conversation about the ongoing war. It seems that no side took the initiative yet.

Discretely I slipped through a door leading to the palace's chambers where I expected to find the wizard somewhere. Following narrow and barely lit corridors I felt like descending into a dungeon rather than making my way through the center of one of Skyrim's greatest powers.

Eventually a golden glow from the end of a corridor caught my attraction. It was the gloriously lit enchanting altar of Wuunferth the Unliving, as its owner introduced himself. And he was indeed a sinister person: a gaunt seemingly stone-old face, half covered with a untended grey beard. He greeted me reluctantly. It must have been quite obvious to him that I was a very, very green mage compared to him.

I did some trading with him, along some smalltalk. He didn't seemed to have a particularly high opinion on Ulfric. According to Wuunferth they both tolerated each other but also stayed out of each others way.

After this quite remarkable encounter I decided to do Nurelion his favour and went out of the city towards the west, where I expected to find the mysterious cave the White Phial was hidden.

The entrance of the cave looked totally unremarkable. No surprise the place laid untouched for so long time. Carefully I made my way through the icy burrows until I found stone stairs leading me to the destination of search.

Since Saarthal I got already a pretty good impression of what would await me in a nordic tomb and I proudly tell you that I handled myself pretty well. I watched every step I made, expecting traps around every corner and at every spot the light of the torches can't reach. In the recent time I developed quite the affinity for fire spells and they did serve me very well. The Draugrs were dangerous of course, especially in groups, but with my wits, a flame atronarch and firebolt magic I was able to deal with them.

As I reached the center chamber I found the casket of of the White Phial's creator, Curalmil put to eternal rest below a mysterious wall, which looked just like the one I did discover in Saarthal. And again I felt the strange tingle, I forgot about the Phial and headed up the stairs to the word-wall. But before my mind did turn totally to the writing waiting for me, the casket cracked open and Curalmil raised from the dead, attacking me. I dodged his attacks, hasted down the stairs and wrapped him in fire with all power my mind could mobilize. I burned his desiccated corpse till he collapsed before my feet.

Just when I came to my senses again after reading the magic word. I discovered a passage leading out. There must be the Phial! I thought and followed it into a room with a stony basin. I hesitated a few moments, then took out the mixture Nurelion gave me and poured it into the basin. Immediately another passage opened for me, granting access to the sought-after Phial.

My glorious return to Windhelm however wasn't at all as I did expect it. The Phial was cracked! I didn't even notice this in my excitement but indeed: it was clearly damaged. Nurelion was devastated, but at least ensured me that it couldn't been me. With my limited powers I couldn't even have scratched it. Nevertheless my reward wasn't too generous. The old Elf sent me away with five septims. I made more with selling the items I found in the ruins, so the adventure wasn't a total failure at least.

Next I went to Viola Giordano's house, to bring the stolen ring back in her possession. I saw her walking around the marketplace before, so it seemed to be the perfect moment for a discrete return consignment. Her house was in the Stone-Quarter, where the more affluent citizens of the city live. Since it was around midday and everyone was busy with doing their errands, the quarter was nicely empty. To my dissatisfaction I found the lock to her house pretty difficult to open. I broke quite a number of picks till I found the sweet spot and the door clicked open. I slipped in, planted the ring in a drawer and slipped out again in just a few seconds. Moments later I casually strolled down the streets, to tell Revyn the good news. I was feeling pretty satisfied and was enjoying myself and the surprisingly sunny day – how unusual for Windhelm!

I realized I made – despite the unsatisfying search for the White Phial – a good amount of money lately. Especially the alchemy really paid off. Being quite affluent – at least for my modest standards – I found I have earned myself a change in climate. The College of Winterhold was a great place – no doubt, but I wanted to see some more sunlight before returning there. So my next destination became the city of Riften, way down in the south of Skyrim.

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 4

The Mage's College & First Excursion

The destinaton of my hopes - the Mage's College of Winterhold.

The next day I went straight to the college. It was a massive building outside the town on a cliff high above the sea. Despite its size it was mostly obscured from my view by clouds and snow.

As I came closer one of the mages, who was hired there as some kind of arcane bouncer told me I wont be allowed to enter the college, unless I show her that I am actually skilled in magic and not only want to enter the place to cause trouble.

I passed the test, which consisted of hitting a seal in the ground with a spell she taught me, and was granted access to the Mages College of Winterhold. She lead me over a narrow and partly crumbled stone bridge and up some stairs, till the College gates eventually opened before me.

At first I was surprised that they don't charge me any fee for being enrolled there, but I soon learned that everything else, training and learning resources did cost good coin. Nevertheless I was over the moon! There I was, Susan the nobody, now aspiring mage in the famous Mages College. How proud I was when I was shown my room in the Hall of Attainment. A little downside is however that none of the student's rooms had a door – and on that note: at least the same applied for the quarters of the mages in the Hall of Countenance too.

Just as I arrived in the Hell of Elements, where the lectures are held, one of the mages – Tolfdir - started with his today's lesson. I joined and he promptly used me as an example for using a ward spell to block a magic attack. Quite an introduction!

After finishing our lesson he told us to meet him at Saarthal for an excursion to have some practical experience. Then I had a chat with my fellow students, a pretty cute Dark Elven girl with the name Brelyna, a Nord (who seemed a bit easy to upset) and a Khajiit who hardly had any topic other than how to become more powerful.

I had a look at the library then. An old and unfriendly Orc is the librarian there. You should think there is no worse position to put an Orc into. But he actually watches over his books like a hell hound. I glanced over a note he had at his desk about a forbidden bookshelf, but looking at the Orc I found it a good way to postpone my inquiries there. No need to get into trouble at my very first day here already.

Before heading Saarthal I quickly returned to my room and picked up all the herbs they placed there for my research. Some of them I had never seen before. On my way to find an alchemy lab I talked with some of the college mages, who seemed to be just a colourful bunch as the students are. As I found the lab, I picked up an alembic which didn't looked as it belongs there. I will have to find out who's it is. Perhaps someone did forget it there.

Being somehow familiar with the terrain, thanks to my rather awkward odyssey to the college, I found the way to Saarthal pretty easily. To my surprise the place was pretty well prepared, with scaffolds and ladders everywhere. Tolfir and the others were already there and together we entered the site.

Inside the ruins looked quite like a mining project. Scaffolding, crates with excavation supplies and pickaxes everywhere. I picked one up, just in case they want us to dig. Tolfdir gave each of us orders where to search for magic artefacts. And indeed it didnt took long until I found a few magic rings and eventually an amulet hanging from some relief on the wall.

The moment I took it a gate closed shut behind me and I was trapped. Its not hard to imagine how stupid I felt: locked in by some ancient trap mechanism on my very first trip for the college. How embarrassing. Tolfdir though stayed very calm and told me to try a few things with the wall where I got the amulet from. And indeed after applying magic on it, the wall crumbled and collapsed into pieces, revealing a passage.

Before entering it he told me to be careful – and how right he was. The secret passage I found did lead to a yet undiscovered part of the ruins. After Tolfdir was able to join me we made our way together deeper into the unknown.

Suddenly something strange happened, the air began to glow Tolfdir appeared like frozen in time. A man appeared before me and told me he is from the Psijic order. He warned me that our actions – my actions – are being watched and that I have the power to prevent some kind of disaster. The man disappeared as quickly as he materialized. I told my guide about what happened, but he had no memory to the event at all.

Quite a bit shaken we continued our way. It didn't took long until some coffins crumbled open and the guards of the ruins, ancient mummified warriors, called Draugr, came to life, trying to kill us. The magic which binds the spirits of these long-dead nords to their dried and rotten corpses so much time after their deaths is really remarkable. Just as remarkable as their fighting skills. The higher-ranking of these Draugr gave us quite a hard time.

At some point we got separated again and I went ahead without the advice and skill of my mentor. I was able to activate a secret mechanism opening me the entrance to just another secret chamber where even harder fights did await me. Eventually Tolfdir joined me again and together we reached the central chamber, where a strange glowing globe was floating above the ground.

Distracted by our discovery Tolfdir didn't spot the body raising from its throne, where it was sitting and guarding the orb for perhaps many centuries.

Immediately I got into a fight for life and death. The undead was extremely powerful and its magic sucked the life out of my body almost faster than I could restore it with my potions. I remembered the flame atronarch spell I was taught earlier and this saved my life. The Draugr turned to its new opponent and together we sent firebolt after firebolt at it. Tolfdir eventually noticed the fight which was going on and joined in. I took its staff as souvenir. Later I found an inscription on it telling me that the staff belonged to a Jyrik Gauldurson. Eventually my toughest opponent yet got a name.

Also, when further exploring the chamber I discovered a passage leading me to a mysterious, U-shaped piece of wall. I felt a strange tingle which got stronger and stronger the closer I came to it. There was a writing, engraved into the wall, which started to glow in a cold blueish colour. I couldn't read it but it seemed to be of some great importance.

When I was in reach of it I could hardly take my eyes off from it and suddenly all the world around me passed out, only leaving the glowing word of a strange language, which literally engraved itself into my mind.

I must have came to me again after just a few moments. No-one was searching for me and Tolfdir was still busy with examining the orb. I still felt a bit dizzy as I stepped back from the now dark and lifeless wall. There was no trace left of my strange experience. Just that one word was still catching my eye at the instant I looked at the wall.

After this unexpected outcome of a rather mundane excavation trip I was assigned to head back to the college at once and reporting to the Arch Mage, what I did in an instant.

Return to the College - soon a very familiar place for me.

Back at the College Arch Mage Savos Aren was at first not really amused to see me returning in haste from Saarthal. Obviously there have been incidents with, or - to be more precise – incinerations of students on this kind of excursions before. At least he did expect me to bring him news of that kind when he say me rushing into his room.

I told him what actually happened and he dismissed me, heading to the excavation site personally. One of the college mages then warned me about telling anything to Ancano, a Thalmor agent and officially “adviser” of the Arch Mage. There were obviously more politics going on behind the scenes than the average student would guess.

Pesky politics aside, I really appreciated the rather easy-going approach of the College. They have plenty of resources for you at hand, very skilled teachers but their rules aren't too strict. Maybe the finding of that mysterious orb in Saarthal mixed up their curriculum a little, who knows.

Anyway I enjoyed my first stay there and learned a lot. Finally I was at a place where I felt right and where I could use my talents.

After spending some time learning new spells, experimenting with alchemy, practising conjurations and dabbling with schools of magic which were new to me, I found it was time to test my newly learned skills in the wild.