Servant:  How can THAT be your FIRST thought at a time like this?!

 

 

Adrea:  So, the party isn’t over!  Give me your story again, I’m having trouble keeping the facts straight .  

 

 

Servant:  Ok, so after I left to find the alchemist for you, I passed through the festival, which was really quite lively, to get to the servant’s wing.  I passed by the Head Brewmaster, through the forge and down to the alchemist’s oasis. She wasn’t there, so I went back through the forge, received a scolding from the Head Brewmaster and came back to find the main hall empty!  I rushed back here to see if you were still around.

 

Adrea:  Quite mysterious…

 

 

Adrea:  Servant, do you have a name?

 

Servant:  Enlayal, Ma’am…

 

Adrea:  Enlayal…

 

Adrea turned away and cast her clothes summoning spell

 

Adrea: ...You just so happen to be in luck today.  I’m a very well respected mage from Solstheim and I lead a group who handle particularly dangerous situations...

 

 

Enlayal:  So you’re saying you’ll help me?

 

Adrea:   Adrea of the Scarlet Sylphs is on the job!  Let’s go find your missing party guests...and talk compensation.  

 

 

Adrea:  I think 10,000 gold and VIP accommodations in the next festival should do nicely for next year’s festival… So where are we off to?  

 

Enlayal:  I’m taking you to see the Head Brewmaster.  That old bastard is still around even though the whole of the castle is disappearing around him.  He might have some insight.

 

Adrea:  Not to divert you, but, tell me a little bit more about yourself, Enlayal.  

 

Enlayal:  I’m an assistant brewer here at the castle.  I was born in a kingdom close by, but ended up here after a Sorceress sacrificed my entire village in a ritual.  Because I was so young at the time, I was deemed “unfit” and was spared from the culling.

 

Adrea: That’s...pretty intense.  I’m sorry that happened. Can you tell me a bit more about your time...here?  

 

 

Enlayal:  I’ve been here, pretty much my whole life.  Learned how to brew the King’s Mead and I oversee the brewing process.  

 

Adrea:  Can you think of any reason why someone would want to disrupt this festival?   

 

Enlayal:  I can’t think of anything off the top of my head… This festival commemorates our King’s victory over the Warlock, Rahgot, who was outwardly viewed as being a scummy guy, but he might have just been misunderstood.  

 

 

Enlayal:  Now that I think about it, recently there was an outbreak of draugr in our dungeon…

 

Adrea:  You guys have a dungeon?  Who do you put down there?

 

Enlayal:  Party guests, actually.  Some guests enjoy scenery down there, so we turned it into a bar.  But like, I said, the draugr infested down there. We hired a professional to handle the problem, but I found his body, comatose, 3 days later.  He currently resides in this room and the staff has taken care of him ever since. I haven’t been able to see if he was taken since the door was locked for the festival.  

 

 

Adrea stopped walking and overlooked the main hall which had once been so lively.  There was evidence that a party had once taken place; empty cups, half eaten platters.  But, not a soul remained in the hall.

 

Enlayal:  A little unsettling isn’t it?

 

Adrea: ...It’s like they all just stood up and left together...

 

 

Enlayal gestured to another door

 

Enlayal:  Here is the Brewmaster's quarters,  I’ll leave you here to deal with the old coot.  He doesn’t care for me very much.

 

Adrea:  I can’t imagine why...

 

Enlayal:  He never forgave me for suggesting we change the formulation in our Mead.  

 

Brewmaster’s Room

 

 

Brewmaster:  You interrupt me for the 5th time today, Enlayal!  I SAID GET OUT!

 

 

Adrea:  Mr. Brewmaster?  I’m here to help figure out what happened to the…

 

Unbeknownst to Adrea, the short tempered Brewmaster threw a full bottle of mead as soon as the door opened.  Adrea had no time to react as the bottle hit her with a *THUNK*

 

5 minutes later

 

 

Adrea sat with a dissatisfied look on her face across the table from the Brewmaster.  She rubbed her throbbing head. The old man was lucky she was able to restrain herself and not turn him into a human water balloon.  He spoke…

 

 

Brewmaster:  My dear, 1,000 apologies for hitting you with the bottle.  With all the commotion tonight, as well as, the interruptions from 1 annoying, assistant brewer, I let my anger get the better of me and hurt one of our precious guests.  Here, some mead for the pain.

 

 

Adrea looked at the filled chalice and felt her stomach twist in knots.  Apparently, she still wasn’t over her incident from earlier.

 

Adrea:  No thank you, Sir.  I…don’t drink, when I’m working.  

 

She lied, but she didn’t want to offend the old man.  

 

Adrea:  I’m actually here about the celebration itself and the missing guests.  Can you provide any insight into what happened?

 

 

The old man stood

 

Brewmaster:  As usual, I was charged with ensuring our guests’ need for libations were satisfied during the whole of the event.  The task usually keeps me pretty busy down here until the early hours of the morning. I keep inventory of our supply, select which year of barrel to open and bottle.  It keeps me very busy. I had received word that one patron this year was claiming mead by the barrel...

 

Adrea smiled sheepishly

 

Brewmaster:  I was down here quickly evaluating our supply when I began to hear thumping upstairs.  

 

Adrea:  Can you tell me a bit more about the sound you heard?  

 

Brewmaster:  Dancing is no rare event during our festival, but this was strange.  Like people were dancing and then suddenly stopped all at different times.  It was quite peculiar. I wonder if it could be tied to what happened to that draugr hunter we hired.  

 

 

Adrea stood up and paced.

 

Adrea:  Tell me about this draugr hunter, what happened?  I know he’s currently in a coma, but I’m not sure that he’s still around.     

 

Brewmaster:  He seemed like a good enough fellow.  Fancy armor, good recommendations, nice lad.  He explored the castle for a few days looking for other points of entry for the cursed undead before he disappeared.  That fool, Enlayal, found the hunter after I sent him to the dungeon for more brewing supplies. The hunter was alive but without spirit.  Like it had been stolen from him. I had the staff tend to him.

 

Adrea:  I’d like to go look in his room, maybe I can find a clue there as to what happened.  

 

 

Brewmaster:  Be my guest, dear lady.  Take the key to the King’s Room with you, it’s the only one for that room and you won’t be able to get in without it.  Are you sure it’s safe for you to travel the castle alone? What if what happened to the guests happens to you?

 

Adrea shot a confident look at the Brewmaster

 

Adrea:  Don’t worry, Sir.  I’d pity anyone who wants to pick a fight with a mage from Solstheim.  

 

King’s Room

 

Adrea entered the room and took a look at her surroundings.  

 

 

The room was well decorated... fit for a king.  But it’s splendor was marred by the still body of the man hired to hunt draugr.  

 

 

Adrea approached and examined the man’s body.  He was still alive, just lifeless.

 

Adrea:  It’s like he’s had his soul trapped.  He’s lucky the staff continued to care for him, otherwise he’d just waste away.  

 

 

Adrea turned her attention away from the man and began to look through his effects.  

 

Adrea:  *sigh*...Not the first time rifling through someone else’s things tonight.  Let’s see what I can find…

 

 

Adrea:  What’s this book?  Seems like this man kept a journal of sorts…

 

She began reading  

 

Adrea:  Dated 2 weeks ago…”I recently accepted a job to clear out draugr at the Winterstone Castle.  Not the highest paying job I’ve taken but the benefits seem to be worth the effort. I’m to clear out the immediate infestation and secure the castle against future ones for VIP treatment at the Mead Festival and a meager gold payment.”

 

 

Adrea:  “Draugr are easy to vanquish especially with armor as good as mine.  Even more so since I’m used to exterminating foes who are much more difficult.  But, when I complete this job, I’ll be lauded as a hero of the festival and have a story to excite the many maidens who attend.  This afternoon, I’ll go to the dungeon to clear out the undead and get one step closer to being “Barin, Hero of the Mead Festival”.  Looks like the entry stops here.

 

 

Adrea stood up and stretched out.  

 

Adrea:  The dungeon, huh?  Sorry, Barin, but it looks like I’m going to be the hero of THIS mead festival.  Just lay there while I do your job for you. Time to go find this entrance…

 

 

Adrea:  I can’t believe anyone would want to come to a castle and party IN the dungeon.  Not only is it the site of historical tortures unknown, but it’s cold! And the ladder isn’t very kind to lady’s footwear.  

 

 

Adrea scaled down the ladder cursing her choice in footwear and looked over the dungeon “bar”  

 

 

Who ever was in charge of decorating, did a good job of making a dungeon seem homely.  Rugs and fire pits made the dark room seem ominous but comforting. A bit different from the decor used in the rest of the castle.  There was indeed an infestation of draugr. But it seemed like something manageable for someone who called himself a “professional draugr hunter”.

 

 

Adrea spied the closest draugr to her.  He seemed particularly interested in the food burning near the fire.  

 

Adrea:  Silly bonehead, that’s human food...  you’ll get a stomach ache if you eat that.

 

 

Water spells sprung to life in Adrea’s hands as she stared him down.  

 

Adrea:  I’m going to have to take him out first before the rest of his friends… good thing none of them have noticed me yet.  First strike is always advantageous when dealing with boneheads.

 

 

Adrea’s first strike exploded like a geyser off draugr’s skull, crumpeling him to the ground.  The remaining draugr in the area turned immediately towards the site of the disruption.

 

 

Adrea focused her water magic into her hands.  Her next spell would end this little conflict.

 

 

Adrea fearlessly walked towards the charging undead with their grotesque axes, swords, and decaying armor.  

 

Adrea (muttering):  That’s...right...group up for me…

 

 

Adrea:  Oh boneheads...you never learn.  Don’t go charing towards a confident mage, they always have something planned…

 

 

A wall of water sprang forth from Adrea’s hands over her attackers.  As the draugr were dashed against the tide, weapons cracked, armor eroded, and the light of undeath drained from their eyes.  

 

 

Adrea confidently walked over their bodies…

 

Adrea:  Looks like I win again, boneheads!  You should really stop trying to get me, you’ll never win this game.  Time to go find where this hunter went.

 

 

Adrea:  This place is giving me the creeps!  They say they keep materials for making the mead down here?  Since when did mead need skulls and blood magic!? I’d expect this out of some daedric alcohol, but not here.  Next time I see Sanguine, I need to ask him about his brewing process...

 

She explored further into the depths

 

Adrea:  What is this?  There’s no way I took out these boneheads.  It must have been where this draugr hunter worked.  I better take a closer look here.

 

 

Adrea:  What’s this dagger and why is it on a bubbling blood fountain?  

 

She reached out to grab the dagger.  While the dagger was warm to the touch, Adrea brushed her hand on the side of the chalice and burned her hand.  

 

Adrea:  Oww! Stupid boiling blood fountain.  I’m going to have to take this dagger to the Brewmaster...he’s got a lot of explaining to do…  The sooner I get out of here the better, I feel like I’m being watched.

 

Brewmaster’s Room

 

The confidence Adrea once had when she entered the Brewmaster’s room quickly turned to dread when we surveyed the scene.  

 

 

Adrea:  Hello? Brewmaster?

 

What had once been bright and warm was cold and unsettling as a ghostly figure’s moans and wails filled the room.  

 

 

Adrea cautiously approached the specter as he lay crouched holding his stomach.  It didn’t take Adrea long to realize that this apparition was the Brewmaster she had spoken with not an hour ago.  

 

 

Adrea (gently):  Brewmaster...what happened to you?   

 

Adrea knelt in front of the old man

 

 

The ghost looked up from his torment…

 

Ghost:  The girl from the party…I’m sorry.

 

Adrea (softly? Tell me what happened.  

 

Ghost:  It’s hard to recall what happened after you left.  I was checking my records when it happened…

 

Adrea:  What happened?    

 

 

The ghost gestured over to the pile of bones and tattered cloth not far from where they sat.  

 

 

The ghost glared into Adrea’s Eyes.  

 

Ghost (sobbing):  It came, a Maw of Endless Arms...I was grabbed and pulled…First my soul was pulled out...and I had to watch as the beast pulled …my body apart...skin first, then veins, then muscles, then organs…All went into it’s endless Maw until bones were left.  I felt it all… but nothing is as worse as the guilt I feel now.

 

Adrea:  The Guilt?

 

 

Ghost:  The guilt of knowing another one must suffer the same fate.  He Comes For You.

 

As the ghost pointed, an unholy roar startled Adrea.  

 

 

She looked over the railing to see an eyeless, decaying creature with arms on its’ face.

 

Ghost (wailing):  It Comes! IT COMES FOR YOU!

 

 

Adrea bound back from the ghost and brought her attention to the monstrosity in front of her.  This thing was obviously powerful and Adrea wasn’t about to take any chances with her own life.  

 

 

Adrea:  Come, Black Rose..

 

She transformed herself into her daedra enchanted outfit.  Whatever this thing was, she had to kill it.  

 

 

Adrea:  No mindless beast is going to be tearing my soul out today…

 

 

As Adrea formulated her next move she was surprised as a white vial which flew across her vision.

 

 

The vial exploded into black smoke.  Robbing Adrea of air and magic. She fell to the floor choking as gas drained the life from her.  

 

 

As she lay coughing, in her last moments of consciousness, Adrea saw the monster alongside a masked man.  

 

 

Masked Man:  Take her. Put her body with the others.  Her life will help herald the return of Rahgot the Great.