Chapter 9
Chapter 9
After watching Tolfdir give a frankly boring account of out trip to Saarthal and answering a few questions about what happened to me after I got separated from the main group and lying about finding the eye we're released and allowed to go about our business like normal, I guess without any mention of the eye Ancano didn't feel the need to interrogate me about it as I go to leave. Once Lydia and I get back to my room I start thinking about what to do with the eye, I knew that I absolutely had to have it but it's not very useful to me right now it's description said that if I try to draw any power from it now there will be "negative consequences" and I don't really want to find out what those are I doubt that I'm powerful enough to draw from it now not to mention the fact that if I bring it out of my inventory every mage in the college will likely be able to sense it, what I really need it the staff that's supposed to go with it, but for that I need to make it into labyrinthian but now that I have the eye there's no way for the story to progress.
Still before I continue with this train of thought there's something I need to do, I pull the alpha stigma power orb out of my inventory and crush it in my hand and I immediately get the urge to rub my eyes as a strange tingling sensation washes over them, Lydia turns to look at me with a concerned expression on her face she asks me if I'm alright and I say I feel fine as I pull out a mirror and take a look at my face and I clearly see the glowing crimson pentagram symbol of the alpha stigma in my eyes and by thinking about it my eyes return to their normal color as I turn the eyes on and off a few times I get the new notification.
New power added (Alpha Stigma)
When the eyes are active the user is able to understand and copy and magic preformed in their line of sight, power will generate skills and proficiencies
Magic is very common throughout the multiverse so I imagine that these will get a lot of use, still I don't know what to do about the college I don't regret taking the eye I would have been stupid not to but with it out of the picture I don't really have a way to easily become Archmage, it's not a big loss or anything the eye was the real prize but I still need that staff to make it work so I need a way into Labyrinthian, the simplest way would be to get the Torc from Savos somehow but I doubt that would be easy. I also need to head to Mzulft not to help the synod members there but to pick up that aetherium shard outside, oh well it's getting late I'll just deal with it tomorrow, I lie down in the bed and unequip my clothes before I call Lydia to bed and she hurriedly undresses.
[Line Break]
In the morning after Lydia and I get ready and leave the college on spectral horses, I've made my mind up I'll swing by Mzulft and grab the shard then I'll go to Labyrinthian and try to find a way inside, so after getting ready Lydia and leave the college it takes us about a days travel to reach Mzulft and it's roughly midday when we arrive luckily I don't plan to go the the whole dungeon which is quite long I'm just here for the shard which is conveniently located in a storehouse just outside for some reason still I'm not complaining.
Lydia and I dismount from our spectral steeds and walk up some stone steps until we come to a large bronze colored door which is locked I could probably force it open but I decide that I should put my lockpicking proficiency to use, it take a bit of time and costs me a few picks but I manage to unlock and open the door, we head inside and I make some unseen servants to gather all the Dwemer metal and other valuables in this place, as they spread out in this room I take note of the other two sets of doors that lead to the rest of the storeroom one goes straight to the shard but is harder to pick so I just go around picking two easier locks in the process.
In the end I empty out the storeroom getting the shard and a bunch of Dwemer metal, after we step back outside I debate about actually clearing Mzulft but choose to do it some other time, we mount back up and begin the journey to Labyrinthian, before long we're galloping through the marshlands laden with uneven terrain and geysers and up ahead of us is a small mountain spiraling up out of the ground, this is Bonestrewn Crest one of the places I wanted to stop it has another word wall at the top with a dragon guarding it, I decide to play it smart I have Lydia hang back a small distance away from the Crest still on her horse so she can join the fight if she needs to while I dismount and crouch low as I begin sneaking up the path.
Once I'm close to the top I summon as many spectral archers and flame atronaches as I can then I cast (mirror image) creating a illusory copy of myself and then concealing my real body with (invisibility) before I send my small army of atronaches and archers up the path to the top lead by my mirror image, the dragon perched on top of the word wall spews a stream of fire from its mouth which destroys a chunk of the archers in the initial wave but does nothing to my atronaches who along with the remaining archers return fire with a large volley of firebolts and arrows.
The attacks from the atronaches don't do very much damage to the flame resistant dragon but they are still immune to it most powerful attack the arrows from my tier two archers take off about a third of its health, the dragon sees my mirror image and leaps off the wall and tries to crush it underneath one of its claws but it passes right through, a look of rage crosses its face as it realizes the trick only for it to roar in pain as a second round of shots hit it and as its wings begin to flap I cast (Quicksand) under it locking it in place but also revealing my position. It tries to breathe fire down at me but simply retreat back down the path to avoid it, it's not like it can follow me anyway, I mentally command my summons to surround it but keep out of melee range and just wait in a safe position until the dragon is dead, I signal to Lydia before I head back up and claim the dragon's soul.
Level Up!
Lesser Dragon Soul absorbed + 2 to all stats
New Power added for level 50 Summoning
(Summon Storage)
The user can store summons in their inventory and release them at no MP cost you can only store one summon for every five points of INT you have
Well that's certainly going to come in handy after the stat gains from the dragon and spending my points from the level I now have ninety INT which means I can have up to eighteen stored summons right now, I dismiss the summons I currently have and as I'm thinking about which summons to store the sound of Lydia's horse brings me out of it and as she discounts in front of me I walk over to the corpse and store it before I learn the word of power from the wall and immediately spend one of my dragon souls on it.
New Shout added (Frost Breath) Level 1/3
Your breath is winter, your Thu'um is a blizzard
After looting everything of value I resummon our horses and we ride off to our next destination which is Skyborne Alter, I should be able to get the second word for frost breath there along with another dragon soul, it takes us a few days of traveling to get there, we could have gotten there sooner but we stopped and explored some caves and cleared out some bandit camps but there wasn't anyone strong there, still it was pretty fun to completely crush enemies that were a threat not too long ago.
It's late in the evening when we arrive at the snow covered steppes leading up to the altar, I know there is another dragon up there on the word wall so I just repeat the same process as I did at Bonestrewn crest and the fight proceeds in pretty much the same way with Lydia and I hiding in relative safety as my ranged summons kill it while it's busy chasing around my illusions, after learning the second word of frost breath and looting everything I walk over to the edge of the altar which is at the top of a mountain and looking down I can see Labyrinthian below.
We head back down the stairs and loop around the altar and circle back down and around the mountain so we can approach from the front this takes us a couple of hours but soon enough we're standing in front of the main archway that leads to Labyrinthian, before we actually go in I summon a few spectral knights because I remember this place being infested with frost trolls, the first place I want to go to is the mask chamber to pick up the wooden mask and I do so without much trouble as my knights deal with any trolls that approach us with relative ease.
New Item Added (Wooden Mask)
When worn in the correct location allows the user to travel back in time
I toss the mask into my inventory without bothering to put it on since I don't have any of the other dragon priest masks yet and I continue on to the entrance which is actually a giant stone slab that is split into two parts that are suppose to slide apart if you have the correct item which I don't have because I broke the college questline so I've devised my own solution as I reach into my inventory and pull out about fifty pickaxes and then I summon just as many unseen servants, if I can't go through the quests I'll just brute force it.
Lydia and I end up having to camp out for the night in the room where I got the mask after having it cleaned out as my servants work away before I went to sleep I also stored some knights and frost atronaches in my inventory, it's about noon the next day when the servants are able to make a whole big enough for us to squeeze through so before we do I dismiss the servants and gather the pickaxes before we head inside, as we step into the first empty chamber a group of ghosts materialize in front of us and begin speaking about this place but I don't pay them any mind as I pick up and use telekinesis spell book before I go into the next room.
New Skill (Telekinesis) Level 1/100
The user is able to generate force in order to manipulate matter with your mind
the user can only generate up to INT/2 pounds of force
costs will very
After pulling the leaver and opening the iron gate Lydia and I step into the large open cavern and as we take our first few steps inside the gate slams shut behind us and I feel rumbling coming from beneath earth, I'm pretty familiar with this dungeon so I know what to expect as Lydia quickly draws her weapon and takes up a defensive position in front of me while I start summoning, first I summon a group of knights and send them charging ahead and that group makes it just far enough to engage the skeletal dragon the bursts from the ground on a whim I observe it with (alpha stigma).
New Skill Created (Animate Dead) Level 1/100
The user floods a dead creatures body with necromatic magic causing it to
rise as an undead under the casters control
the casters INT must be higher than the creatures highest stat
lasts for INT seconds
New Proficiency Created (Necromancy) Level 1/100
Measures the users the ability to command and control the undead
as well as the ability to use death magic
putting the notifications aside as I watch my knights start fighting with the dragon many more skeletons also begin clawing their way out of the dirt so I summon a group of warriors this time and I make sure the all have shields so they can from a protective wall around us before I summon a few flame atronaches, as the skeletons get fully out of the ground they pull out old rotten bows and begin to fire at us but their shots are blocked by my warriors my atronaches shoot back with firebolts and I also fire back with some (holy rays).
After the skeletons realize that their arrows can't pierce my shield wall they start targeting the atronaches but they prove to be too quick for them to pin down and eventually they all get picked off, by this point the skeletal dragon has been heavily damaged but it has also killed most of the knight I sent at it so I have my warriors break formation and charge in to reinforce them while the atronaches and I rapid fire holy rays and firebolts at it until it goes back to being dead, once the conflict has ended I go around loot everything valuable including the skeletons and the dragon, before I move on to the next room I decide to make some new skills since pretty much every enemy in this place is an undead.
New Skill Created (Holy Radiance) Level 1/100
The user creates a ball of holy energy that floats in the air
the ball sheds bright light in a 30 foot radius
creatures that you choose take WIS/2 holy damage per second
undead, fiends or any other unholy creature takes WIS damage per second
New Skill Created (Light Spear) Level 1/100
The user magically creates a spear out holy light
that can be thrown or used in melee
the spear does WIS + 20 holy damage and 25 piercing damage
all damage is doubled if used against an undead or a fiend
Those should help out a lot I also need to make sure to keep my alpha stigma active at all times while I'm here I don't want to miss out on anything, after everything is done my group moves on to the next chamber where the ghosts show up again with one less in their group this time and they're arguing about whether they should go back or press onward eventually they decide to continue on before they vanish again, we keep moving passing through a set of wooden doors before coming to a chamber with two sets of stairs leading down but one of them is blocked due to a cave in so we take the one on the right.
As we step into the small open area I see a book laying on a pedestal on the other end of the room and a door to my right that looks to be completely frozen over and as I start to make my way over to it a wave of dark blue energy passes through the wall and washes over us, all of my summons are dispelled and my MP has been reduced to zero I also hear a booming voice echoing from the bowls of this place speak in a language that I don't understand, ah I had forgotten about this part of the dungeon well that will be annoying.
After waiting for my mana to recharge I shoot a (firebolt) at the frozen door which suddenly opens despite the ice blocking it and a spirit in the shape of a warrior appears with a battleaxe writhed in ice in hand, as it stalks closer to me clearly intending to cut me down so I backpedal and hurl a (light spear) at him and as it sinks into its torso it lets out a howl of pain and anger as it full on charges me but before it can reach me Lydia quickly gets in between us and catches the ghosts furious strike on her shield.
As she goes to counter attack I cast (haste) on her which helps as she pushes the axe away which throws it off balance as she cuts it three times in the span of a second and the force of her blows send it stumbling back as I circle around and send another (light spear) at it which goes right through its head as it's form breaks apart and dissolves into a puddle of ectoplasm on the stone floor, I know that a soon as we step into the next room I'll have my MP drained away again so I don't bother resummoning my knights if worst comes to worst I just bring out the summons in my inventory.
Once we step into the next room which is actually a massive multi level cavern the same wave of blue energy passes over us and takes all of my mana so we just retreat back into the previous room until I get it back, I mean sure I could just pop a few potions but my inner hoarder recoils in horror at the thought of wasting a resource for no reason so after a few more minutes of waiting I go back into the cavern and as I step out onto a ledge overlooking it a heavily armored draugr notices me and unleashed all three words of an unrelenting force shout at me.
Luckily I manage to put up my (barrier ward) in time as I'm sent flying back and I watch as my MP takes a nosedive and the ledge I was just standing on is quite literally blown to pieces, I can tell from the MP loss that the shout wouldn't have killed me but it still would have hurt like a bitch, I stand up and dust myself off before I see the draugr mindlessly running up the path leading to us and Lydia looks like she's ready to meet it but I call her back and as soon as it reaches us I fire back with my own unrelenting force and while it isn't strong enough to vaporize stone it's still plenty powerful enough send the undead tumbling all the way down to the bottom of the cavern getting caught and smashed by several jagged rocks on the way.
Well I guess that's karma for you I guess, the draugr lost almost all of it health from the fall and as it desperately tries to get back up onto its feet I chuck a (light spear) down at it finishing it off before we head down to the platform the draugr had come from, there's a tunnel leading off from it and inside we find a couple of weak draugr that get taken down with one (light spear) each, at the end of the tunnel we find a door with a glowing rune etched onto it which is a trap so I summon a spectral warrior and have it open it and I watch as a huge burst of electricity explodes out and destroys the warrior.
Now that it's safe we head inside an find a long abandoned alchemy lab there is a shelf holding several books and ingredients, the book are too damaged to read but some of the ingredients are still salvageable so I take those and I also pick up a black soul gem and another spell tome which will allow me to learn equilibrium which is a spell that allows you to sacrifice HP for MP but it's not particularly useful so I just shove it into the inventory with everything else before I head back the way we came because we hit a dead end.
From the platform we started on we stand in front of a partly broken down bridge but we skip is by traveling down a few natural paths leading down into a small flowing creek with another door at the end of it, as we start walking over to it the blue energy goes over us again but this time the voice that follows is in our language, it seems to be under the impression that I'm Savos Aren and that I've come to finish what I started but I just ignore it and continue on passing through two more doors before we're accosted by some weak skeletons but a single unrelenting force shout blows them to pieces quite literally.
We continue to follow the flowing water until eventually we come to a broken bridge and have to drop down onto a small patch of dirt, from here I can see two passages but one of them just loops back up to where we were so we head through the second one which leads us to another wide open cavern and as we step out of the opening a cave troll spots and lets out roar as it starts to lumber towards us, I simply summon a wall of knights in front of us and the dumb creature blindly charges only to get quickly surrounded, killed and stored
After taking a look down from our current position I see a huge section of wall with a large gate blocking out passage and there are also quite a few skeleton archers lining the wall just waiting to fill us with arrows, normally I'd just rush in skeletons are weak after all but I know that as soon as we get down there my MP will be drained again so I summon a couple flame atronaches and send them down with the knights from earlier, I guess me being down there is the trigger for the MP drain because my summons are able to dispatch the skeletons with no trouble at all with the knights blocking projectiles and the atronaches slow picking them off.
Once every has been wrapped up Lydia and I head down there and sure enough as soon as I set foot down there the blue wave comes back and all my summons are gone, as soon as my MP is back I pull the leaver to raise the gate and we move on after some more looting, past the gate we come to a small cemetery with wisps floating around the tombstones, instead of dealing with the wispmother I know is waiting there Lydia and I silently creep around the edge of the graveyard without disturbing anything, we go down a passage on our right which leads us to a door that's engulfed in flames.
This time I prepare a bit as I set up (holy radiance) and place a (shock rune) on the ground before I step back and shoot a (ice spike) at the door, as soon as my spell connects the flames go out and the stone door opens revealing a spirit just like the last one only this one is on fire, as it steps through the door weapon in hand it's immediately knocked down by the blast of lightning that struck it from below it tries to struggle back to its feet but the light from (holy radiance) destroys it before it can.
As we go through the door and go through a passage on our left where the ghosts from the beginning are dejected at losing more of their number but the projection of Savos urges them to continue and that they can make it if they don't give up before they all fade away as we prepare to go through the huge circular opening this dungeons unique enemies show themselves at the other side, there are two spectral draugr and a spectral war hound who all begin charging down the tunnel but a few (fireballs) and a frost breath shout deal with them before the reach us.
Moving to the end of the tunnel I find a grate on the floor which I pull open and spam a bunch more (fireballs) down it to incinerate the two draugr fighting a troll down there, after they're all dead I leap down there and I mentally thank my DEX stat for helping me not break my legs, we continue down as we travel deeper and deeper down through these tunnels, we encounter more groups of draugr as we go but they're very easily overwhelmed by my holy magic and summon spam, though I do make sure to grab the first word of slow time on my way to the end and before long we're standing in front of the door which leads to the Morokei's room.
To be honest I'm a bit worried about this fight since this is my first dragon priest fight and in the lore dragon priests are suppose to be insanely strong and this one has the staff of magnus but at least it starts off sealed so I should have all the time I need to prepare so I head inside where I see the two ghostly wizards providing mana to keep the barrier sealing Morokei in tact and before I come up with any plans I want to see what I'm dealing with here so I use (observe) on the priest.
Name: Morokei
Race: Undead
HP: 4500
SP: 1000
MP: 20,000
Strength: 25
Dexterity: 55
Endurance: 75
Intelligence: 230
Wisdom: 185
Charisma: 50
Luck: 100
Thoughts about you: Hatred
Well fuck, this guy is really strong I can see why Aren ran away from this but I didn't come this far just to leave so I need to figure out what to do, I mean I could just fight him straight up but that's my last resort so I'd like to stack the deck in my favor as much as possible, and as I'm thinking a idea suddenly hits me as I step back into the room and pull out a note book and a quill and do some quick math while looking at one of my skills, if this strategy works I'll be able to completely cheese this boss, Savos may have had to run be he wasn't a gamer so after putting them away I go back inside and summon two spectral knights and have them get into position behind the two enthralled wizards who they will kill on my signal.
After they're in place Lydia and I stand directly in front of the barrier, if this goes wrong then I'll release the summons in my inventory, now I preform my set up, I starts spam casting (holy radiance) until I have around twenty five of them hanging over the barrier and another (observe) show that Morokei isn't taking any damage so go around the whole arena and fill it with as many archers and flame atronachs as I can before I mentally give the command to my knights who immediately dispatch the wizards releasing the barrier and I watch as his HP just melts as all the stacked holy damage hits him all at once.
He tries to levitate away and cast something but I then he's pelted with spectral arrows and firebolts from all directions and I spam throw (light spears) as well and with all that damage stacked against him he dies without really getting a chance to do anything, if he hadn't been seal this would have been impossible and I'm sure one day I'll have to deal with a dragon priest in a fair fight but that isn't today, I quickly loot everything Morokei has including his body but the two most important items are his mask and his staff.
Level Up! Level Up!
New Item Added (Staff of Magnus) Current MP: 0
This divine staff is a tool for siphoning and storing massive amounts of mana
the user can fire a concentrated beam from the tip of the staff to drain INT MP per second
from any source of mana if the target doesn't have mana the staff will drain lifeforce instead
for every 1 point of HP drained the staff will gain 2 points of MP if a target has neither MP or HP
the staff has no effect, the staff's capacity for storing MP depends on its wielder the staff can store
up to INT x 100 MP which can be used by the wielder as if it were their own so long as they are holding the staff
New Item Added (Mask of Morokei)
This ancient and powerful artifact is one of a rare few mask
bestowed onto high ranking members of the dragon cult
boosts MP regen by 100%
The mask is already really strong just straight up doubling my regen is crazy but the staff is basically just a second bigger pool of MP with the added ability to steal other people MP, I think I'm in love, I have my summons spread out and loot everything of value in this room while I spend the point from my level ups, the most important thing I do is I finally raise my INT to 100 which nets me a new perk as well as numerous skill and proficiency boosts but there was one pretty important one.
New Perk Added for 100 INT (Mana Lake)
Your body has become a conduit for pure magical energy
4 additional point of MP for every point of INT
New Power Added for (Mana Manipulation) Level 50 (Mana Suppression)
Your mastery over your mana has improved allowing you to hide your magic
note creatures with sufficiently higher stats or special detection abilities may see through this
After everything has been gathered up I make my way out through the back exit but as I go I'm surprised as my way forward is blocked by a familiar Thalmor mage with a smug smirk on his face, this doesn't make any sense Ancano's toadie shouldn't be here and I didn't tell anyone at the college where I was going. I'm brought out of my thoughts when the forgettable lackey starts talking. "Now now no need to fight just hand over that staff."
Charm resisted by (Gamers Mind)
I thoughts grow hazy for all of a second before the skill kicks in and I can also feel it activate a second time as it starts to calm me down, this fucker thinks he can just waltz in here a take what's mine well I'll wipe that dumb smile off his face, as a look of realization crosses his face as he notices that his spell has failed he begins to cast something else as his hands start to crackle with electricity but he's too slow as I unleash both words of my frost breath shout and suddenly everything in front of me is covered in a thin layer of ice the Thalmor was knocked off his feet and is laying dead on the frost covered floor.
New Quest Added: Ancano's Betrayal
Description: After being attacked on your way out of Labyrinthian by a Thalmor agent you realize that Ancano has somehow figured out your plans
Objective: Return to the college and confront Ancano
Rewards: (Archmage) Title, 100 Credits, ???
I've been waiting for a chance to test that out I'm glad to see it didn't disappoint , still I need to hurry back to the college and figure out what Ancano is planning and how he found out what I was doing, still I shouldn't go into this half cocked as soon as we step outside I pull out the eye of magnus and fill up the staff as much as I can and it takes a while but I end up with 10,000 MP in the staff before I put them both away and summoning spectral steeds for us as we make a mad dash for Winterhold.
[Savos Aren POV]
I let out a sigh and lean back in my favorite chair as I finish going over Tolfdir's written report of what when on in Saarthal when Ancano suddenly bursts into the room with a angry scowl on his face, as soon as he spots me he marches right up to me, he'd better have a good reason for this insolence just as I'm about to question him he starts furiously shouting. "I demand an explanation! You approved of another foolish research expedition into that damned ruin and do you consult your advisor? No of course not, you clearly have no respect for the Thalmor presence here perhaps I-"
At this point I have had enough as I angrily throw the report to the side and as the loose papers fly through the air I quickly stand and let my magical aura flare around me holding nothing back which causes him recoil back in fear as I start walking up to him but every step I take he takes several back until his back is up against the wall. "Now you listen here, your roll at this college is as an advisor nothing more and even then I am under no obligation to tell you anything, you speak of respect when you have don't nothing to warrant even the slightest speck of it and you can tell your superiors that!"
It brings me a great deal of satisfaction watching the supposedly superior high elf cower in terror, a cruel smirk spreads across my face as I go to continue my cathartic tirade but my eyes suddenly widen as I feel the agonizing sensation of a blade stabbing down into my upper back and I see Ancano's fearful expression morph into one of savage triumph as he fades into mist, an illusion, my thoughts are confirmed when I glance over my shoulder and see a rapidly materializing Ancano as his invisibility spell breaks.
As Ancano yanks the dagger out and goes to stab again I focus my mana and send out a shockwave that sends him flying back and smashing him into my table he quickly begins to rise I go to blast him with a continuous stream of lightning but he erects a barrier which blocks it, while we're locked in this stalemate I glance over at the door leading down to the hall of the elements but I see the floor is littered with runes I won't be getting out that way, just as I'm about to release my spell and cats healing magic my lightning fizzles out on its own and as I try to call it back I can feel a block on my mana as my vision starts to blur, poison?
Ancano drops his barrier and launches a ice spike through my chest and I fall to the ground, I try to stand back up but my body feels too heavy to lift and through my blurred darkening vision I see another high elf dressed in strange yellow robes seemingly appear out of thin air and begin speaking to Ancano.
"You've done well now you merely need to help us recover the artifacts and the anomaly and your position in our order will be assured, don't worry about this I will make sure no one catches on until it's too late." the strange elf says while gesturing to me and that's all I get before I black out.