CHAPTER 42: The Fate of the Skaal
In which our hero kills a Humanoid from the Deep
Previous: Chapter 41: X Marks the Spot

Okiedokie, we've arrived at the Skaal village after a trip that should have only taken maybe an hour but seemed to have taken several months. But whatever, we're here, finally. And... nobody else is. I mean it, this place is empty. Truly a thriving bastion of civilization in the cold north, indeed. There's also supposed to be an invisible barrier around the town, but I never saw it.

After wandering around a bit, we finally stumble on what appears at first glance to be a drum circle, but upon closer inspection turns out to be... a drum circle sans drums. Kids, take note, look at the dangers of excessive pot smoking. Frea's father is called Storn, because his parents wanted to give him a cool name, but ran out of ink before they could finish the last loop on the 'm,' is maintaining a shield of some sort. Just big enough to protect three people, not the town. Well, I guess when a man gets older, he starts to lose some of his magical mojo. I tell him to buck up; they have a pill for that now.

Anyway, Frea and Storn talk about Miraak for a bit, their dialogue couched in vague terms ("How is that possible? After all this time?" and "There is too much we do not yet know" are terrifically helpful, let me tell you), Storn turns to me and informs me that he is too weak to hold the shield for long, and I must hurry as quickly as I can to aid his people. After which, he proceeds to spend the next ten minutes dumping backstory into my head about Miraak and the dragons and the Dragonborn, before asking me to head off to a place called Saering's Watch to learn a new shout. I get it now, he's a discount Greybeard. Gotcha. I also get that I'm supposed to be incensed at Miraak's actions, both in the present and in the past, but once again I am forced to evaluate this rationally - Miraak led a rebellion against the dragons, for which he was killed, and everyone to this day thinks of him as the ultimate villain. You know, in Skyrim they did that too, only that time they won, and those ancient tongues are revered in song and legend as heroes. I guess winners really do write the history books.

Leaving the Skaal behind, Stenvar and I head on up to Saering's Watch, where we fight a dragon and a bunch of draugr, which takes about six hours to finish because I couldn't fight the dragon, I was laughing too hard. The poor fucker has a seriously fucked-up jaw, I feel right sorry for him. I imagine he got beat up a lot as a child. After he dies, his body dissolves like any normal dragon, leaving behind a normal dragon skeleton, which I find kind of disappointing, but I guess the devs gods couldn't be bothered to rig and animate a whole new skeleton mesh when it's much easier to slap on a new paint job. I hop on up to the word wall, absorb the word, and then walk on over to the Wind Stone. After shouting the new word at the rock, the structure the people were building explodes, undoing days of backbreaking hard work, for which I feel like a heel. Apparently someone else things so too, because out pops up what looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon after he went through puberty. I disembowel the beast and we all head back to the village.

Storn is quite happy that everything's back to normal, his people can get away from their mindless labor at the Wind Stone and go back to their mindless labor at the Skaal Village. Yippee. He then tells me to go shout at all the other stones on the island, which will weaken Miraak, and then to head to Neloth's tower to talk to the dunmer there and read another black book. As happy as I am to schlep all over the island shouting at stones, busting up lovingly-constructed shrines and killing fishmen (i.e. not much), I think I'll head back to the mushroom tower again. I'm anxious to get another black book and open it up. I only read it for the articles, I swear!

Next: Chapter 43, Nchardak is Dwemeris for "Sneeze"
Next: Intermission 5
Start at Chapter 1