Out In The Wilderness II
The next day saw me exploring the area
around the college. On my practise-sessions on the rooftops I saw a
Nordic burial mount just to the north. It actually seemed pretty
close. Close enough to do some target practise on the creatures
wandering around it. I wondered if I hit anything.
I climbed down the cliffs it is resting
upon and eventually stood on the shore in inhospitable wilderness,
many meters beyond the college's safe grounds. I gathered some
barnacles and spiky grass and walked through some ruins from the time
of the the great collapse.
I made my way carefully along the shore
and over ice-sheets. A quite peaceful scenery if there weren't the
wild beasts. One of them, a giant snow-bear attacked me after I
reached a small island not far from the beach. The bear was a tough
opponent. I ran for my life, zigzagged and used up quite an amount of
healing and stamina potions before I was eventually able to kill it.
I was more than a bit proud of my
victory. First the bandit-chief, now a snow-bear. You really have to
use the environment to you favour. Open space is great when you are
faster or at least more agile than you enemy. You can always dodge
the attacks then. I also understood that my defeats at the fort north
of Riften and at Bleak Falls Barrow were due to the confined space
they happened at. I simply couldn't avoid getting hit! I had to be
careful at such places. Its nice to have an advantage outdoors, but I
also needed protection for indoor fights.
Wandering further north I finally found
the burial mound and indeed it was populated: two Skeletons attacked
me, but I could take them out pretty easily. A further investigation
of the area told me that I really did hit something firing down from
the college: burned bones from at least two more skeletons where
scattered all over the place – not bad shooting!
The tomb itself proved to be more
dangerous. A pretty tough draugr did raise from its grave as soon I
entered it. As soon it fell burning into the snow I searched the
place and made a really nice find: a amulet of waterbreathing! This
might be handy some day.
 |
| A Nordic burial mount, covered in snow. |
Leaving the tomb I could see a boat
laying on the shore of and island north of it. I went there, prepared
to run into anything from a pack of bandits to some insane
necromancer. It turned out I was wrong. Well mostly. I found cave not
far from the boat and as I climbed down it, I saw the strangest thing
I ever did in my life. It was a large cube made of golden metal like
the Dwemer used, with several crystals or gems stuck in some kind of
panel. It must have been some kind of mechanism, so much I could
tell. But nothing alike anything I've seen before.
Before the strange apparatus was a
mage, inspecting this, tinkering there. He was perfectly peaceful,
but also perfectly nuts as it soon turned out.
It wasn't an easy task to detect any
coherence in his words, but so much I gathered: His name was Septimus
Signus and he was studying the secrets of the Dwemer. Obviously for
far too long already... Anyway he told me about the technology of the
Dwemer and that they were even able to read an Elder Scroll with
their machines – without getting insane or blind that is. Usually
every mortal who tries to read them, inevitably loses either their
mind or their sight. Septimus told me he had a short glance once too.
His eyes still work perfectly.
Even though we just met he seemed to
have great trust in me. He told me where I could can find the
entrance to the legendary “Blackreach”, an underground dwemer
city. In order to open the strange mechanism he needs the knowledge
of one of these Elder Scrolls and he suspected I could find one
there.
He gave me two mechanisms he was able
to uncover: a cube the Dwemer used to store their knowledge in and an
orb he called “Attunement Sphere”, which acts as a kind of key to
unlock various dwemer mechanisms. The cube, which he called
“Lexicon”, was to store the information of the scroll.
Still overwhelmed from his story I
wondered: If only half of the things he told me were true, this might
be an incredible discovery! If that was just the ramblings of a
madman and the Dwemer artefacts he gave me weren't working – or not
in the way he promised me they would – I would likely die a death
somewhere where noone would find my bones for a long time...
I found it wasn't a bad idea to
postpone my decision whether I should trust the old man's words and
search for the Elder Scroll or not. I was honing my skills and began
to gain confidence, but that wasn't a reason to become careless or
too bold.
It was already dusk when I left the
cave. I headed west and after a while discovered the silhouette of a
man standing on top of a cliff looking out to the sea. As I came
closer I realized it was a shrine of Talos and had a rest there,
enjoying a gorgeous starlit night.
Heading further west I had a few close
calls with snow-bears. They could still get pretty dangerous to me if
I made a mistake, but I handled myself pretty well. I even finally
got a hang on the fireball spell. That made it much easier for me to
attack them at longer distances already. While a firebolt only causes
damage at a very limited spot, a fireball sets a whole area on fire.
Usually enough to hurt a group if they are standing close enough
togeher. Very handy!
I also found a nordic ruin with the
statue of a warrior inside. His empty hands were looking like holding
a weapon. A greatsword or an axe perhaps. I wondered what happened to
it. I also found three alcoves which may been blocked passages
further down the tomb. I wasn't able to find any mechanism though
which could open them. Later I found out that this was the tomb of
the legendary warrior Ysgramor, founder of a group of warrior called
the Companions, which is still active. Small world!
 |
| Travelling further inland. |
I felt pretty confident and headed
further away from the college and the shoreline, went past the statue
of Azura, crossed some mountains and found an abandoned fort on their
foothold, just near a road. At least I thought it was abandoned but I
could spot several skeletons and people with robes. I must have found
a fort full of renegade necromancers!
I pondered my chances. I was standing
on a narrow ridge high up on a rock wall. The fort down below me. So
height was to my advantage: I had a clear line of fire while they
would perhaps only see a part of me – if they could spot me at all.
I took out the skeletons pretty quickly, but the two mages turned out
to be significantly tougher. It was in fact the longest and most
difficult fight I had yet: Both were able to absorb a lot of the
damage I inflicted to them. And after they did spot me, they did land
some very precise hits on me. I was able to cure myself and restore
my magical powers – but so did they! I knew I couldn't relay on
potions to win this fight. I had only a limited number of them and
used them up pretty quickly. I ran zigzag on the ridge and dodged
quite a lot of their attacks while returning fire as much as my
magical reserves allowed. Finally I took out one of them, but the
other hid himself in the blind spot just below me on the foot of the
rock wall. I knew where he was, but as soon I came closer to the edge
he sent his ice-spikes against me. With terrible effectiveness. One
time he almost got me, and I collapsed to the ground for a moment. I
was lucky though that I was out of his line of sight or he could have
ended the fight pretty easily. I waited till my reserves were filled
again and then carefully I sneaked to the edge of my ridge again and
sent a hailstorm of fireballs at him. I knew I did hurt him, but not
enough. He returned with lightning bolts and I had to retreat again.
I was stuck. There was no way back: the rocks above me were way too
steep to climb and if I tried to somehow get down the rock-wall, the
mage would have an easy target.
I began to wonder how long I could
endure this fight before I made a mistake or just collapse in
exhaustion as I suddenly saw lightning bolts flashing below me. But
not heading to my direction! Something must have distracted him. I
took this chance and mobilized all energy I had against him. And
indeed: he eventually fell into the snow and never got up again.
I climbed down the rockwall and looked
what have might have distracted him. An argonian woman was running
off the scene. She looked more or less unharmed but certainly scared
to death. I think she had no idea she just saved my life. And I most
likely hers too.
Next I searched the bodies. The mage
had an impressive staff of Lightning bolts. A weapon which could
became very useful. Then I had a look over the fort. There were
buildings on its far side, but I decided not to test my luck too
much. The fight was difficult enough and I likely wont have survived
it if it that Argonian didn't came by.
I did consulte my map and identified
the fort as fort Kastav, not far from Windhelm. Since I was closer to
Winhelm than to Winterhold already I decided to visit Ulfric's
stronghold again.
East of the city I discovered a large
circle of stones. Perhaps the ruins of another burial mound? It
sometimes seems that half is Skyrim is graves! I was already on my
way back to the safetly of Winterholds walls as two Spriggans
suddenly appeared. Within moments they drained the life out of me. I
ran as fast as I could – and I think that saved me. I had the
advantage on long range and killed them both with fireballs before
they could get close again.
No comments:
Post a Comment