The Mage's College & First
Excursion
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| 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.
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| 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.
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