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Youtubes: Hey, this is Fenrir. I've been on a real Dwemer knowledge kick recently. Val and I stormed through a recently-uncovered Aetherium mine and I got new armor. Then I got wind of an ancient dwemer university called Kagrenfahlz, built by Kagrenac's buddy Ludz. Damien and I have been doggedly searching through ancient tomes, playing fetch for various people, and getting into lots of scrapes along the way. Speaking of scrapes, I stopped by a town on the way back from the Bandit Tower, I slept in an Inn in one of the new small towns, Ebonheart. This one wasn't an old town rebuilt, but a completely new one! I sampled the local goods (hired myself a prostitute) and the innkeeper charged me an exorbitant amount for it. Fenrir Night in Ebonvale.mp4 And a couple of thugs ambushed me as I came out in the morning. Of course, I'm no legendary badass, but they still didn't know who they were dealing with. After that I recalled to Winterhold, and went into the Inn to look for some elf. The priestess of Azura hadn't been very specific. But, I found Nelacar. He seemed to be an expert on stars and soulgems. "Gods! Did the Jarl send you?" "No, a priestess of Azura." He went on to explain that Azura's Star, a daedric artifact, was essentially a neverending soulgem. Which I already knew. It turns up in history every so often. Malyn Veren, his old master, tried to alter the star to make himself immortal. They exiled him when students started dying. "He took a few loyal disciples to Illinalta's Deep and vanished." I jotted the into down in my journal for later. For now, I collected Damien and gave Hannah back her necklace. Then I used my intuition to lead me to Ludz's academy in the Sea of Ghosts. It was really just one big circle. With the key we'd gotten from High Hrothgar we were able to get into the recesses of it, and recover more information about Kagrenfahlz. I circumvented a puzzle with my amazing jumping skills and hookshot. "Dude, you are such a cheater," Damien said. "You know you'd be flying over this junk," I smirked. "Yeah, you're probably right," he smiled back, floating over them. I'm going to gloss over a bit of the story here, since there's already been quite a lot of me traveling back and forth across Skyrim. We talked to Michael Sebastian again, since everybody was sending us there, who pointed us to Duns Scotus, who pointed us to a small nordic ruin named Hypokeimenon. He said we needed four keys, which should be there. We took a side trek to Illinalta's Deep to secure Azura's Star. Pretty much blasted our way through. Then we saw the airship overhead. "Valiana's here!" Damien yelled. "Hey boys!" She yelled down, hopping down with us, "Need a ride?" "You're a sight for sore eyes. How'd you find us?" I asked. "I asked at the college. They knew where Damien was going," she replied. Very practical. We cleared the bandits above in the Silent Moons Camp, then entered Hypokeimenon. After a weird conversation with a man claiming I had met him infinite times before, we found a room with a ghost standing on a platform with three thrones. "You're a ghost. Crazy," I said. "You could say that. What brings you here in my house?" He responded. "I'm looking for the four keys of Kagrenfahlz." "You might be heading towards a disappointment." "What do you mean?" "Open the chest and you'll find out yourself," he said. "Are you the soul of a nordic philosopher?" "Parmenides. I might be his soul. Maybe I'm his consciousness or maybe I'm just a bundle of some lost memories. But, why should i care? All that matters is devoting one's life in understanding it." "Did you come to a closer understanding of life?" I asked. "To be honest, no. That's why i refuse to pass over to the afterlife. Sovngarde can wait. Maybe it is an exchange that can freshen my ideas. So i ask you, curious one: what do you think? What is nothing?" Parmenides asked. "Nothing is just nothing the lack of anything," I shrugged. "But if it is a lack of any substance, property or state how could we talk about it?" "I don't know everything's something man," I shrugged, "Maybe... we really can't talk about it and we're just uttering nonsense." "Then the philosopher is not so different from the common man. But it does seem that we use it often to describe states of affairs. Men of courage tend to exclaim that nothing can put them down. That sentence clearly has meaning." I'm reminded of a story about a giant being blinded and the man telling him his name was 'nobody.' "Maybe it just begs the question where meaning comes from," I said. "Aaahhh. That is a question worthy of quiet reflection. Thank you for the brief exchange," he nodded. I grabbed the key from the chest, and there was only one. I sighed. "I guess let's return to Duns Scotus," I said to my companions, "You in for now, Val?" "Sure. The seas are clear," she replied. We flew back to Riverwood through rain now, and I found Duns on the road leading into town, just talking a walk. "I found the key of justice but that's all." "That is both wonderful and regrettable news!" He exclaimed, "Wonderful since it clearly proves the existence of Kagrenfahlz. Regrettable because I've no idea where the other keys are." "So what do we do now?" I asked "My former students Hannah and Martina were both deeply interested in the matter of Kagrenfahlz. During their study they investigated the matter excessively. At a certain point they even started to correct me! When we talked about they believed they had found the actual names of the archdeacons. I never took that seriously but maybe I should." "Guess I'll go back and talk to Hannah," I said. "That sounds like the wise thing to do. Good fortune on your travels. We will meet again," Duns said. We three paused, then Val said, "Well, c'mon, let's go see this Hannah person." I shook my head, "Sorry, this is just getting tiresome. You're right, of course." We ported back to the College... again. And we approached Hannah. She's changed clothes to a similar set of robes, but less revealing. She pretty much just laid out the information we needed - Martina and her had done a lot of research on the other deans complete with the locations of their labs. She handed me her papers with a smile. "Thanks," I said. "No worries. I am more than willing to help you," she replied, "Agrippa lived in Solstheim. Posidonius had a residence in Nchuand-Zel. You might have to talk with Cancelmo." "Calcelmo?" Damien and I asked simultaneously. "Yeah... that," she looked up, only stopping her writing for a second. "Aristorch lived in the Sea of Ghosts. It might be difficult." Damien and I smirked for different reasons. I had an old Dwemer Helm of Waterbreathing. He had both his necklace from Daggerfall, and a spell to do the same. "Duns Scotus believed the entrance to Kagrenfahlz is in Mzulft," I said. "Close. Martina went to great lengths to discover the actual entrance. I know it's in the Velothi Mountains. It's connected to Kagrenzel, ruins north of Mzulft." I pretty much just jumped off the back of Winterhold tower and sailed over to the location marked on my map. I put on the helmet, went down and got it. EASY. I'm guessing Hannah and friend had actually pinpointed the locations but weren't really combatants or adventurers like us, so they didn't have the grit to actually go get the keys. I recalled back to the library (still soaking wet) and Damien ported us to Markarth. We walked into Nchuand-Zel. I did not need to talk to Calcelmo - I can pick locks VERY well. Anyway, it was in a chest behind a locked door. "Anybody here ever been to Solstheim?" I asked. "Yep. Been there. If we take the airship it won't be that bad a trip. Probably a couple hours," Valiana said. "Perfect," I replied. We got in and went. It was late afternoon when I finished crossing over Solstheim and the others were sleeping, so I figured I'd just pop down (jump down with cusioned boots) and grab the key. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. Another locked vault, another easy grab. I'd left the airship a couple thousand feet up (out of grapple or ladder range). I Levitated back up. I found Val and Damien standing on the deck. "Look at the plume from Red Mountain," Damien said, staring into the distance. "Yeah man, that is insane. Should come back here sometime and sightsee," I said back. "Really makes you wonder how bad Morrowind is doing nowadays," Valiana commented. "Pretty bad from what mom said. She went there for her arena tour," I said, stepping back up the wheel. With a, "Let's go, bitches!" We were off. When we got back to Skyrim and found Kagrenzel, it was dark with both beautiful moons out. This time I'd slept on the deck while Valiana drove. As I woke up, catching a glimpse of the moons glinting off Val's eyes, I smiled at her. "Beautiful," I said. She smiled back, "Thinking of Valenwood?" "Yeah, a little," I said. She kissed me just as Damien arrived on deck. "Let's go," Damien rolled his eyes, "The whole reason we slept in shifts was so we could get down in there right away." I smiled at Valiana and we slid down the rope ladder. We ran past the obvious glowing orb trap leading into Kagrenzel to a side door and through a lock doors (openable with any of the keys we'd gotten recently). Then rode an elevator down. I smiled, "Well, we did it! We're in Kagrenfahlz!" It was a wide, open area (though not as open as the Aetherium mine) with several sitting areas. There was a large inactive dwemer construct on a pedestal. A display. We walked around the plaza for a while before we found an orc with a dog - Verulam. "Ah, hello stranger. Forgive me for not noticing you later. Just like the Falmer, I lost my sight." "Sorry to hear," I said back. "It's okay. I'll die here anyway," he said. I blinked, "Wow. Why?" "Oh, you'll probably die here too. This place is locked like the Dwemer puzzle box it is." "I'm sure there's a way out of here. There's always a way out," I said. "You're definitely your mother's son," Val whispered in my ear. "Not to mention we can just teleport or recall out of here if we need to," Damien whispered in my other ear. I chuckled, "Let's play along and figure this out though. I like a good challenge." The orc continued, "You came through the door in the cave of reflection. That door locks from the outside when you enter. The only way out is the opposite door, also locked by mechanism. I think the secret to opening these two doors lies in the faculty areas. But they're also locked. I thought the university key opened them. I was wrong. You need the special keys for each faculty to get in." "You mean..." I pulled out the four keys, "These?!" "By Malacath!" He exclaimed, "At last! Hope! Listen. Use the keys to enter the faculties and find a way to open the gate. If you need information or insight, I'm at your disposal. Good luck, my friend!" "For now, I'm going to try it on my own. We're in our element, guy!" I shouted. Then we headed to the Ethics Faculty. A straight upward path with side rooms, all locked, with a snow elf statue beckoning us to venture upward. I could hear the sounds of Falmer growling and chittering in the depths of the section. Seemed like the Dwemer may be straining the limits of the ethical here. I read the inscription, "Every Dwemer must ask him or herself whether our answer to the Snow Elf Problem was justified." I paused for a second, looking at my companions, then said, "What the fuck?" The snow elf problem? The problem was they needed help and the dwemer destroyed them. Worse than killing them. Mom had met real Snow Elves. We continued on and came to a room lined with dwemer-forged bars. On the right were constructs, on the left, falmer. But they hadn't seen us. I pulled out my single-shot. I'd replaced my semi-auto dwemer crossbow with an enhanced daedric crossbow recently. It had slow reload, but the single shot was for long distances. I'd still use the autofire for midrange. Seriously though, falmer were beyond saving. I plugged one in the throat and he went down. His friends were unsure where the clicking of my crossbow came from before I loaded a fire bolt and blasted a second one in the side. "We doing this?" Damien smirked. He loaded up Elemental Bolt. "Try to keep hidden. They are still blind," I replied, shooting another. By this point they'd pinpointed me and were firing arrows. Damien and I retorted with actual fire. Me - my hand cannon and Damien with Elemental Bolts. Valiana charged down the ramp to the right to meet the constructs headed for us. I jumped down to file in behind her with my sword and shield. The falmer, still trapped behind the bars, attempted to blast Damien with lightning bolts, but he was ready with Shalidor's Mirror. He followed us. By the time I got there, Valiana'd already flattened a couple constructs. I ducked behind one and flicked out my locksmith's tools. "What're you going?" Val asked. "Trust me," I said, and with a quick click, the sphere shut down. I thumbed my nose, chuckling. More constructs filed in the open door, and I blasted their ranks with a firebomb. Val dropped down to engage, and the one who'd slipped by to me got an Elemental Bolt to the face courtesy of Damien. I swapped back to my sword and jumped down to aid Val. "Lotta these boys!" I yelled. "No kidding!" She yelled back. Then Damien said from above, "Good thing the door's locked, or we'd have the Falmer to fight too!" He blasted one between us, while Val finished her third off, and I bashed then finished off the last sphere. "EASY!" I shouted. Val chuckled. The three of us got in front of the door, Damien throwing down a heal as I worked on the lock. "Alright, everybody ready?" I asked. "Born ready," Val gripped her greatspear, licking her lips. The Falmer were clawing at the doors, trying to get at us. I took half a step back and stabbed the one in front of me through the bars, then I kicked the gates open. The few remaining Falmer, ravenous no doubt after being trapped in here so long, surged forward. Or atleast, they tried. Valiana charged past me, barreling into them, knocking half of them over. I blinked. Their hunger knew no bounds, and they soon piled onto her. Even Val's immense strength wasn't enough and they knocked her unconscious. Strong Falmer! I took out my cannon, standing shoulder to shoulder with Damien. He backed into the previous room and I backed off to the right, like we'd practiced this or something. I grinned devilishly, throwing down my new and IMPROVED Autocannon. As Damien unloaded a storm of fire, my cannon split off into two cannons, both spinning up and dealing enough damage to melt flesh from bone. WIthin seconds they were decimated. I fed Valiana a potion and she snapped back to consciousness. "Wha..?" "Looks like I finally have a chance to rescue you for once," I smirked, holding her steady. She patted me on the head, "You've come a long way, kid." I shut my eyes, smiling and shaking my head, "Been a while since you called me that." Damien laughed out loud. We continued through the area, finding the path back (through several door bars) to the entrance. Eventually we came to a room with many levers and spinning blades. I played with them for a little while, but found no use in them. The next room had more falmer locked behind bars, and I noted the lever by my feet and the spinning blade traps in their cage. I pulled the lever and removed the problem. "Geez, they call this an Ethics facility?" Damien threw his arms up. "I know, right? Sheesh," I shook my head. We kept going and found another switchback, with a basement-type area. Falmer heard us coming and swarmed us en force. Val and I held them off for a few seconds before I heard Damien say, "Fuck this." I looked at him to find frost swirling around his form, and I knew what was coming. He took a step in front of us into melee and blasted the Falmer with Black Winter, turning them into frozen body parts strewn about the floor. He dusted his hands off, signifying he was done with the exercise. I laughed, "Why didn't you do that earlier?" "I have a lot of spells, you know. Options paralysis. Also Magicka is a limited resource. And Elemental Bolt is free." I shrugged. We cleared out the rest of the area, got some treasure, and found a small sleeping area. Seeing as it was now about midnight, we decided we'd get some actual sleep. On stone beds, which were murder on the back. Valiana slept first while Damien took the first watch and I took the second. We only really got four hours, seeing as how we'd already slept a few hours each on the airship trip.

Obligatory Youtube link: Hey, Fenrir again. Last time I tackled a new dwemer ruin and started to double down on my search for ancient dwemer lore. Now that there's not a war to fight I figured it's time to double-down on finding all of Skyrim's ancient mysteries. Unfortunately for you, that involves reading skimming a lot of books, if I can actually find them. Last time I'd just enlisted Damien to help my Dwemer book search. We teleported back to Riverwood and walked into the Sleeping Dragon Inn. Duns was sitting on a bench across the room. I tapped him on the shoulder, "I brought the deed to Hannah. Here's the proof of payment." "Marvelous! It is good to know that the future of Frodnar and Dorthe has been secured. Here is something for your trouble. It is a rare work of philosophy I gladly share with you. By the way if you are interested in learning more about philosophy I heard that Michael Sebastian of Bruma is in Skyrim," Duns replied, "It seems he is residing in the Biosas Late, a cave inside Moss Mother Cavern." He handed us books and payment and we headed outside onto the porch. Damien leaned on the arch while I traced my finger along my map. Just feet from us was a torrential downpour, mist churning the scant few feet of safety. "Really coming down out here," I said, following the roads with my thumb. "Yeah, but do you want to stay here? You see Delphine is here?" Damien asked. "Eh, I wasn't really paying attention," I continued. "I think the Blades and Companions went on sort of a joint expedition the border of Orsinium. Some unusual dragon attacking travelers. Anyway probably shouldn't concern ourselves with it. That's what Bris said anyway." "Oh yeah?" I asked, not exactly feigning interest, but trusting that the now stronger-than-ever Blades could take care of it, "Moss Mother..." "I don't get why they would leave their leader out of it though," Damien commented. "She probably has her reasons," I said, then turned my attention back to the task at hand, "You don't have a teleport for Northkeep or Little Vivec, do you?" "Nope, sorry. Only well traveled places have teleports usually and I've never been to either place," Damien replied. "I bet we can make it to the Inn of Lost Souls by nightfall," I said. Damien smirked a little, "I figured you'd say that. I can fly us that far, at least." We traveled down the old road toward Falkreath just above the ground and reached the Inn of Lost Souls. Seeing it was getting a little late, we walked in the door. Before we took off I'd been trying to talk about the new towns, but the rain was just too damn loud. With it behind us, I continued, "Did you know they just recently restored Northkeep? Used to be a town a couple hundred years ago. Think it got destroyed in the Great War maybe." "Oh really? that's mostly interesting," Damien said. We looked to each other, looking around the Inn and seeing nobody. No patrons, no Innkeeper. I continued the conversation, trying to act nonchalant, "Only mildly? There are like ten towns starting to rebuild since the Summerset invasion." Breaking the aire of nonchalant, Damien asked, "Where is everybody? "That's what I'm starting to wonder," I said back. "I say we get the hell out of here and keep going," Damien said as I started to walk through adjacent rooms. "Are you that freaked out by weirdness? I say we leave gold on the counter and rest up. I'm bushed and my skivvies are soaked," I replied. After a thorough search, I settled on a bed and laid on it, keeping my gold until I actually saw somebody to pay for the room. "Suit yourself. I'm going to keep watching for ghosts," Damien said, then he took a seat in the chair across from the bed. I was bushed, because I was out like a light in only moments. It seemed like I'd just gotten to sleep when Damien shook me awake, "All right your turn." "Never thought I'd be standing watch inside an Inn," I said. I got up, put my armor on and walked out to the common room, intent on finding something to snack on and drink behind the bar. As I turned to the bar I found a man casually walking there, "Hey you!" He turned to face me, "Yeah?" I raised an eyebrow, "Uhh...I'd like to rent a room." At once the man's surly neutral attitude turned to a warm smile, "Sure thing. It's yours for a day." "Strange," I said, handing him the gold, but then I shrugged and said, "Well now I guess I can go back to sleep." I immediately heard from the next room, "You son of a bitch." I laughed out loud, knowing it was Damien. "Hey wait, we're brothers you dipshit," I poked my head in the room. "Well, you're an ass," Damien put a pillow over his head. "I'm gonna go ahead, I think," I said, "Looks like the storm cleared." "I can fly and catch up with you," Damien responded, muffled. I didn't need him for the moment. I continued on down the road, taking in the sunrise over Lake Ilinalta. I made it to Northkeep around 5 am. It wasn't anything special, except that it'd been recently attacked by strange mollusk creatures. The Thane of the town (some small towns are watched over by Thanes by order of the Jarl) didn't have much to say about it. They seemed to have it well in hand, so I use my Dwarven Hookshot to get onto the watchtower and looked out over the fields beyond. I found Moss Mother and ventured the final stretch by my lonesome. I found a man crouched in the overgrown brush by the cave's entrance, "Hello? You! Over here! Please, I need help!" As I approached, he continued, "Thank Kynareth for you stranger. I'd almost given up hope of walking away from here." "What's your name?" "Valdr." "What are you doing out here?" I asked. He replied, "We tracked a bear to this den. Good coin for those pelts. We had the big sow cornered when they showed up. Three of them out of nowhere. Spriggans. Niels went down before we even knew to run. Ari died just inside. I never even thought that things were real. I may have lost a drop or two of blood. Truth is I'm not going anywhere like this. He inhaled sharply, "Ah hurts to breathe." "I may have a potion to spare," I replied, fishing through my equipment. "I just need a little to get going," he said, and I handed him a weak healing potion. He actually didn't look too bad. "Much better thanks friend I wouldn't have lasted much longer without that." I rolled my eyes. "But now what I can't just walk away. Not with my friends bodies in there being torn apart by those beasts," he said. "Don't be foolish. I'll do it," I replied. "You'd really risk your life for a stranger's honor?" I nodded, "I was passing through here for something deeper in the cave anyhow. Going to need to clear out the spriggans and bears." "I don't even know what to say thank you my friend i'll wait here," Valdr replied. I set up a small fire and cooked breakfast, offering Valdr a little. He seemed to get confused when he saw I was waiting, until I explained my brother was on his way. Damien soared into view and set down. I offered him a strip of bacon and he ate it hungrily. While he chowed down I explained the situation. "Finally caught up let's go bro," he said. We stepped into the brush of the interior and it was so thick we couldn't see anything. I perched up on a cliff nearby, and it was clear the beasts further in could already sense our presence. I cast a cloud of bolts into the brush, clipping a Spriggan. A deathly silence fell over the cave. But I could hear movement. I swapped to my hand cannon and firebombs, knowing it'd probably prove useful against plant creatures. The spriggan leapt out of the brush at me, but I blashed him right in the face with a bomb, finishing him off. I exhaled, taking a look at Damien. "You gonna help, right?" I asked. "You had it well in hand. I was watching what was coming next," Damien said, immediately shooting off an Elemental Blast that exploded about ten feet in front of me. The brush was concealing a charging bear who'd almost eaten my face off! The bear shook off the damage and reared up, but I was ready with a blast of my own to the bear's torso, nearly flattening the beast right there. Damien took another shot and finished him off. "Good show," I said. "Don't celebrate yet," Damien said, and we traded a couple shots with another bear. About this time I noticed birds flying past us. As we finished off the second bear so many birds had gathered it was a veritable cloud of crows. "Since when are there a million birds in here?" I asked, "Seems unnatural!" "Look!" Damien pointed to the opening into the larger cavern ahead of us and something like a massive tree creature with moose antlers, even bigger than an Ancient Spriggan was harrowing us, controlling the birds. "What the hell is that thing?" I asked. "I've been cataloguing otherworldly creatures, but I haven't seen this one yet," Damien replied. While the birds were pecking at my head, the thing was blasting me with razor sharp leaves. Between this and the brush that made it impossible to see, we silently agreed to beat a hasty retreat. "Everything alright?" Valdr asked. "You never told me an even bigger creature than a Spriggan was in there!" I said. "Well, uh, guess we never made it that far, friend," Valdr replied, "Going back in?" I stroked my beard, "Yeah. Got any ideas, D?" "It seems to be affecting the overgrowth of the plants here. Maybe if we go in there, burning a path in, we can weaken the thing, take it down with fire. You got enough firebombs?" He asked. "You kidding? I still have a ton of supplies from the Aetherium dungeon, and I restocked bolts myself," I replied, loading a firebomb into my launcher. "Alright, let's go!" Damien shouted as we rushed in. I drew the thing's attention with firebombs while Damien channeled Flames, melting every square inch of greenery he could find. He swept back and forth like a flamethrower. I managed to slip into the bigger cave, still blasting and kiting the thing. And suddenly, realizing he wasn't reaching me, he winked out. "Where'd he go?" Damien asked as he caught up. "Ah shit!" I shouted, the thing's massive vines exploding from the ground under us. I rolled to dodge out of the way, whipping around. I started blasting, avoiding him but keeping his attention. Damien definitely did more damage, alternating between Forbidden Sun and Elemental Blast, but I was doing my fair share. I felt like I was escaping the razor leaves by the skin of my teeth as I dodged and weaved. After several moments, one of my blasts knocked him to one knee and Damien charged a massive spell. Flamestrike blasted the thing with a line of exploding fireballs, and I got the final hit with another firebomb. It toppled, and Damien ran forward to get a sample before it was all lost to flame. "Got it!" He exclaimed, "Maybe Solaire can figure this one out." "Oh, he's back?" "He's been visiting often, reporting his findings. His world's nearly collapsed so the College has kinda become his home away from home," Damien replied. I looked around and found a small trapdoor that led to a deeper cave, and what we'd been here for in the first place - the Biosas Late. An Inn for the reclusive. Which, is a weird concept when you think about it. The first floor seemed to be the guest rooms area, and the common room, while the basement had the tavern. Also a weird concept. We found Sebastian sitting in his room with his door open, just to the right of the front door. "Hey uh..." I started, but before I could say anything, he cut me off. "I knew this day would come. I came here to find peace and now you bring me... trouble," he spoke to me over his shoulder, not even turning to look, "My name is Michael Sebastian. I am a philosopher. If it helps you, I'm willing to sell some books. But that is where my help ends. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Spoken like a true philosopher," he said back, but added nothing to his statement. After a moment of silence, I said, "I need help locating a book." In a ponderously slow cadence, he replied, "The best help I can give you is not to help you at all. Autonomy can never be forced it can merely be facilitated. Although we are born, we can rise up claim our freedom and become masters..." Was he trying to get me to leave by boring me out of the conversation? I interjected, "But you could point me in the right direction?" "I could. There are many things I could do. There are endless possibilities. Endless possible worlds. In some of them I have pointed you in the right direction. And in this I do not point at all..." Sensing this was getting me nowhere, I said, "Is there anything I can help you with?" "Hmmm...my mind is burdened," he replied, scratching his chin. People are often apt to help you when you help them. He continued, "Have you ever heard of a dwemer named Ludz?" I shook my head. "His name has faded away, but then it was more than three millennia ago that he lived." "How can I help you?" I folded my arms. "According to legend, Ludz was a close friend of Kagrenac, the dwemer engineer who defied the will of the gods themselves. Their friendship, however, fell apart and the enmity between them grew. In time they would despise each other. I want to understand what lied at the root of their conflict. They both believed in building an institution to educate young dwemer minds. Although Kagrenac was the architect and engineer, it was Ludz who worked out the philosophy behind it. Rumors speak of a workshop in which Ludz worked meticulously on his ideas. An academy made by Ludz himself as a contrast to Kagrenac's university. I believe that the original plans for this university must lie in the mysterious academy of Ludz. If you can find them for me, I would be very grateful." He looked back at his book, perhaps hoping I would finally leave. But I said, "Sure I will find those plans for you. Do you have any idea where this academy is?" "I have only heard rumors. Some say it is in the coldest regions of Skyrim. Some say the Throat of the World. Some - Elswyer. Some - Black Marsh. There's this rumor Ludz was actually an Argonian. But whatever the truth, all we know is that Ludz left hints in dwemer works of philosophy. If you can find them you might find clues about where the academy is. Other philosophers might know where these dwemer tomes reside." I sighed. What a vague and unhelpful statement. The man probably knew I seemed like an adventurer type and gave me such an open-ended quest that I'd go away. Truly, an unparalleled mind. Sebastian added, "So you know if you do not find them, I can understand. Some say those plans never went into fruition or they were never written. All I have for you are these notes and this mysterious dwemer key. I advise you to look for one of the ancient dwemer tomes. Good luck." I took the key and walked down to the bar, where Damien was already enjoying a drink. I stood across the table from him. "So what's the situation?" He asked. "Essentially this guy likes to talk slowly but gives almost no actual information," I shook my head. "He is a philosopher," Damien chuckled. I laughed with him, sitting down, "What do you have against philosophers?" "Same thing as you, I think. You're a historian and engineer. I'm into research and applied magic. Both of them are practical applications for knowledge," Damien took a big drink. "Well, I do see the reason for asking questions - why are we making the things we're making? Sometimes, that's important," I replied. "Yeah, but! Some of these guys go way too far and never apply their tools of questioning to anything important," Damien added. The man at the bar said, "Hey traveler, what's your name, what'll you have?" "Fenrir. I'll have what my brother is having, I guess. Could use a break about now," I replied. He came to the table quickly with a smooth draught of ale, "This's good. I do have a lot of questions about a bar, in a secret cave. How do you do business?" "This here is the last resort. A place where people who are wary of life come to relax. We get a surprising amount of customers willing to pay top Septim for privacy. I'm the Fat Joe. Happy to serve you drinks, my friend," he replied. Damien said, "I'll have another," as he finished his off. When he walked away, I whispered, "THE Fat Joe, not just any old fat joe." Damien and I chuckled to each other. After we had a little break, we departed, looking around Moss Mother Cavern proper and finding a couple chests. One - a massive one half-submersed in the dirt that held a lot of pricy knick-knacks but nothing particularly useful for us. There were three priceless bows laying next to the chest as well. Might even be able to display one of them in a museum. The other was another relic chest pointed out to us by a fairy. I'd found another on the way to meet Duns Scotus the first time. We walked out of the cave and found Valdr waiting for us there with bated breath. "It's done," I said. He smiled big, "You had me worried when there were sounds of battle and it got quiet." "There's a tavern down there," Damien blurted out. Valdr blinked like we were crazy, "Well, either way, you've done my friends justice. I want you to have this. I know it isn't much, but it's important to me." He handed me a dagger, "It was Ari's. Said it brought her luck. Come find me if you're ever in Falkreath. You'll always be welcome at my door." "Thanks friend. It was no problem," I nodded. As Valdr walked into the cave to gather their remains, Damien elbowed me, "Ya big damn hero." I gently punched him in the shoulder as he laughed. "Oh noes my only weakness, tiny punches," Damien chuckled again. I smiled back. "So I definitely need to go back to the college to see if there's any work for me, and get back on schedule with creating the Life waters. Believe it or not, Auriel's Tear requires a lot of soaking and waiting. Not a lot of actual stuff to do. But I do need to change out the water every now and then. Who am I kidding... I need to make sure the apprentices are doing it and catalogue the volume." "I was going to check to see if Hannah had any more info yet," I replied. "Grab on then," Damien said, and he used Recall to bring him to his room at the College. I walked down to Hannah, still in the library, and she had nothing new for me. I browsed the books and found a few philosophy texts, but nothing to propel me forward. Damien saw me about five minutes later. "Hey, I should teach you how to teleport," Damien said. I raised an eyebrow, "You think I can learn that?" "Maybe. I'm going to tell you about it and you can decide," Damien said, leading me to the Hall of Elements as he talked, something about needing room, "Teleportation is something they don't teach here anymore. That's because at some point it was outlawed in the Empire, along with flight, spells that open locks, and a few other things like necromancy. Of course, most of this was under one of the more crazed Emperors (not necromancy). Jura struck down all those old decrees nobody remembers. And of course, we're not part of the Empire anymore. All that aside, that just means it's not common knowledge anymore." "Okay, why are you telling me this?" I asked as we opened the doors to the Hall of Elements. "None of these things are all that difficult to do," Damien said, "Teleporting is like doing long division. It's not high-level calculus. It just takes a long time to work it out." "For you it's like a five to ten second cast?" I asked. He looked over the hall and said, "Perfect," when he saw the training area was free. Damien turned back to me and walked backwards as he talked, "Yeah, but I've been teleporting for a while now. Especially if you're very familiar with the space. Oh, and you..." He looked me up and down for a few seconds, "You're going to barely have enough magicka, looks like. So if you mess it up a few times, here." He dumped out a dozen magicka potions from his pack. Then he went into lecture mode, "The typical teleportation spell is Apprentice level Conjuration. You have to learn a separate spell for each location you want to move to, but they're pretty commonly mix-and-match with only the last step. The biggest step." The scant few students in the Hall of Elements had looked up from their books and were starting to gather behind me. I smirked at my brother, "Impromptu class?" He smiled back, "Sure. The basic premise is the same as summoning any creature. Fen, do you know any summon spells?" "I did learn to summon those Aetherium spiders after the Aetherium mine. Too cool to pass up," I replied. "Alright," he took out a different scroll, Summon Wolf, "It is very possible to cast spells without the faintest idea of the inner workings of magic at all." "What I do with my three or four spells I know," I chuckled. "But if you approach it like a machine, it gets easy." I scratched my beard, "Hmm... now you're speaking my language." "A spell is like a program. You tell it what to do, give it your magicka, and you get the result. Most people don't know how to make new spells. They just take the formula and hit the 'GO' button without understanding how it works," Damien continued. Then he took out another scroll of 'Teleport: Solitude.' Setting them side-by-side he pointed, "These runes mean to move a thing. The one on the wolf is 'to me,' but on the Solitude one it has a set of coordinates." "Does that one mean, 'me?" I asked. "Yes. You can see the Solitude one is {move a thing} {me} to {long list of coordinates}. Whereas Summon wolf is {move a thing} {wolf} to {me} and it has some protection parts at the end so the wolf doesn't immediately attack you." One of the students raised their hands, "But that is such a long list of runes for the coordinates." I broke in, "I remember how you taught me the basics. Whenever you cast a spell, you're letting the runes flow through your mind and expending magicka to make the effect work. So whenever I want to move to Solitude I have to remember these -what is that?- thirty runes?" "Yeah, well. It's why full casters keep spellbooks," Damien said, "Scrolls are cheating. You don't have to remember, but they're expended when you use them." "I mean, couldn't I make a staff that just teleports me?" "You wanna carry around twenty staves?" Damien chuckled. "I want to try one!" One of the students said. "Not this one," Damien smiled, "I'm going to show you the easiest Teleport spell. Recall." He traced out a list of four runes, then a sequence of six, "This is Mark. This is Recall." "It's that easy?" "It's that easy," Damien said, "The set of four places a specific marker on a physical space." He casted Mark, then he walked about twenty feet away. He shouted, "Recall takes all the memorization out of Teleporting. Do you see the sequence?" I said back, "Looks like {move a thing} {me} to ... and then there's the sequence that is used in Mark." "Boom," he casted Recall and appeared next to us again, "Easy." The group clapped, "You guys give it a shot. Just be careful not to Mark the same place as somebody else. Or next to an object. That's why we never ever rearrange in the College." I placed my Mark and casted Recall. It was easy. "C'mon," he said, "You're going to try Solitude." "What? Now?" I asked. "Unless you're too chicken to try it out," Damien smirked. He knew how to push my buttons. "You're on, devil-boy," I smirked back. "I'm gonna make this real easy. I'll hold up the scroll so you can have the sequence, but you cast with your own mind," Damien said, "And this." He wound a rope around my right leg and his left. "What's this?" He asked. "For safety. I'm holding the scroll, but I'm also going to be there if you send us to a bottomless void so I can just yank us out of the mouth of whatever," Damien explained. Then he turned to the students, "Oh, and do not experiment with teleports. And don't try it without supervision. That's a good way to wind up dead. Or up the creek without a paddle." He turned to me, "Ready?" I popped my neck, "As I'll ever be." Damien held up the scroll on his chest so I could see it. I charged magicka, went through the long sequence and BAMF we were gone. Then we reappeared. Damien handed me a potion, "Nice try." "What happened?" "We went to Apocrypha. I snapped us back," Damien replied. "WHAT?!" I exclaimed. "S'ok. It happened to me the first time too," he said. The rest of the students, who'd already been considering trying teleportation on their own, were now immediately and fully against that idea. Damien handed me a magicka potion, "It's alarming how similar the sequence of Apocrypha is to Solitude. Only about seven differences." "Oof. All these squiggles look the same," I said, chugging the potion. "Yeah, I know. But you can do it." And we went on like that... for a while. By the time I'd gone through all his potions, the closest I'd gotten was teleporting us high into the air above Solitude... "Why'd you snap us back? We both have Cushioned!" I said. "Knee-jerk reaction. Just because we're immune doesn't mean it isn't scary." "But you can fly!" I exclaimed. Damen shrugged, "You keep the scroll. I'll teleport us. Need to get on the road." I hung my head dejectedly as he unwrapped our legs. I put my hand on his shoulder and we appeared in Solitude. It was late, and pouring. We stepped into the Winking Skeever, and it was packed. "Geez," I said, pushing my way through the crowd, "I can barely walk in here!" We searched for a few minutes, but couldn't find Sticks-and-Stones, so I sat at a bench, "Hey bro come have a drink." "Maybe later." "Okay suit yourself," I said. Damien yawned, "Where is a barmaid or innkeeper. I am tired." Emerging from the sea of bodies, the barmaid, Rina, asked, "You want a drink?" I smirked at her tiredly. She looked just as beat as the two of us, but here she was, grinding to make ends meet, "Hmm...maybe. I'll have something top shelf. Surprise me." A wench in glasses appeared next to us with a tray full of drinks. I smiled at the two of them, "I know it's busy right now. They paying you alright?" "Psh, nope!" Rina said, then laughed. The wench went to get me something from the bar. "I bet your legs are tired," I said. "Why, because I've been running through your dreams?" She sneered slightly. "No, I wasn't going to use a line. I was just going to say there's room here for you if you want to sit down. I won't tell anybody," I grinned. She stared at me for a few seconds, looked me over, then finally said, "Okay, you've talked me into it." She put her hand on my shoulder, then sat in my lap. I blinked, "Not exactly what I had in mind..." I looked to her low-cut dress, right in front of my face and said, "But not unwelcome." She giggled. Damien, who'd been standing by the hallway and scanning the crowd, said, "I think I can hear an Argonian upstairs. We should maybe get what we came here for." I threw up my hands, "Okay, okay. You're right." "I usually am," Damien smiled smugly over his shoulder. I nodded to Rina, "Sorry hon, gotta get up. How about setting us up a room for the night?" She nodded and headed to a room as I handed her the coin, and some for the bottle coming my way, then I followed Damien upstairs and took the lead. An Argonian woman looked over to us as we approached. "You Sticks-and-Stones?" I asked. "Aaah. Another feeble-minded creature comes to Sticks-and-Stones to drink from her well of wisdom. My books cost money. Do you understand?" I raised an eyebrow, "Of course. Maybe you should read a book on how to talk to people." "I doubt you understand," she said back. My lip curled a bit. What an asshole. "I need help locating a book," I said, trying to be neutral. "You need help with a lot don't you? Finding your sweetroll, washing yourself, wiping your arse?" Sticks asked condescendingly. "You..." I started angrily, but was cut off by the sound of Damien chuckling under his breath. "What?" I turned to him. "Don't worry about it. Continue," Damien replied. "I bet you have excellent sales numbers," I said flatly, "I am looking for Tractatus Logico Philosophicus." "What would a savage such as yourself do with that book? Smack someone in the face with it?" She asked. "You do realize there is more in life than trying to bash each other's brains in? With that attitude you will be dead and forgotten soon. Dead and forgotten as the workers of Mzulft. I sighed long, coming out more like a growl than anything. Not sure if she wasn't able to speak like a normal person or she really had no idea how dumb this looked... "Only an idiot would make such grand generalizations about someone they don't know," I folded my arms. Damien laughed again, "She's messing with you. What intelligent person would just assume everyone around them is a dullard without any information? That's the definition of stupid." I turned to her and the look on her face told me she might not have been playing this game and really was a smug asshole. But what Damien'd said made her change her expression, like she was now playing along and didn't want to look like an idiot. I smirked at my brother. Both smart, coming to different conclusions. "I am looking for Forbidden Thoughts," I continued. "You realize that the adjective 'forbidden' means that it should not be read by the feeble-minded. Who am I kidding, you don't realize anything at all, do you? Else you would understand that book is what we scholars call a basement book, meant to be read underground and in darkness. But that makes no difference to the likes of you who live in a continuous flow of mental delusion." Getting tired of this act, or demeanor, I said, "Yeah, okay whatever. Is there anything I can help you with? "To be honest I could use the help of a simple-minded creature. Especially if the task at hand is detrimental to my intellect. But for you, it might just offer an actual challenge have you ever heard of a book named the Lusty Argonian Maid?" "Yes," I replied. "You might be more erudite than I thought," she said. "Really? That was the thing that did it for you? What do you want me to do?" I sighed. "Now, I do not care for that book at all. Written for the amusement of the common oaf, if you ask me. But there is a unique version which has a misprint. That version is quite valuable and I have acquired it recently. However, the book is not in my possession yet. The merchant who sold it to me requires me to come meet him in that revolting swamp they call a city, Morthal. He won't go to Solitude, he said, too posh for him. Disgusting figure. Since you have offered your services, why don't you go to Morthal and fetch that book for me?" "Sure, I'll be on my way. I guess it takes someone of a lesser mind to cast Teleport spells to effortlessly move to a different place," I sneered. Sticks actually smirked a little bit, and I wondered if she was looking for more of a back-and-forth in the future. She said, "You might actually be of use to me. Go find a merchant named Gottfried of Chorrol. An old dimwitted simpleton. He is in the Moorside Inn in Morthal. Good luck." Before I left, I took a look at her stock and bought a couple books that I'm sure were philosophical tomes that could lead me closer to reaching Ludz's college.

Youtube Videos: Hey, it's Fenrir. It's Sun's Height (7th Month) 4E 216. Only a few months since the Invasion of Summerset and Valenwood and already patrolling the Sea of Ghosts is getting boring. I've heard rumors of some new old dwemer ruins that were uncovered by miners. And of course, I have a huge backlog anyway. Mom definitely focuses on bandits and Nordic ruins, so I figure I could focus on Dwemer ones. One of the mission notes floating around the Bannered Mare in Whiterun detailed this location. So Valiana and I took a break from our duties and rode south to the cave. We encountered a group of bandits on the way fighting with Riften Guards right outside the extension. We helped, and took their loot as a reward. No guard deaths. Anyway, the mine itself had nothing in the way of personnel. We found an Aetherium vein, but try as I might, I couldn't mine it with a regular iron pickaxe. After a few tries it just ended up chipping the pickaxe, so we ventured further in. There was a straightforward carved tunnel at the back which opened up into a massive cave housing an old dwemer ruin. "You really love this stuff don't you? Just like your mom," Val smiled at me, and I must've been beaming. The huge cave had bridges over a large underground lake, waterfalls directing flow from one level to another, and several paths to take. We were careful as we entered, but there was no danger. I took the first door I saw, labeled Siphonasium. We fought our way through improved dwemer spiders and spheres until we came to a room with a series of ramps and levers leading down a spiraling tower. After finding the right configuration for the levers to get the final door open, we pushed forward through a storeroom, more spheres and spiders, then another downward shaft room. We were attacked by a small group of Falmer, but I made quick work of them. I say I... "You alright?" I asked, "You've been carving up everything easily so far." "Yeah," she sighed, "Falmer kinda gross me out." I chuckled, "Never thought I'd hear something like that from you." In the next room there was a platform, but what it was for I had no idea. I grabbed the loot and continued on, plowing through spiders left and right. When I looked back I noticed Val wasn't there. I backtracked a little bit and found a man at her feet, diced up with her Greatspear. She handed me a note, "Contract to kill you, I guess." A letter from a woman named Camilla... I filed it away from later. "But hey, good on him. He really went the extra mile following us all the way down here," I chuckled. We passed into the next chamber, and I leapt over the next set of iron spikes blocking our path. I fought a large group of spiders, then turned to Val, still trapped behind the spikes. She'd hit the spikes at least once to try and get through. "Not doing much good from back there, Val," I smiled. "Well don't run ahead. How did you get over there?" "Just squeeze to the side of them. You can literally just walk around," I said, sidling past the spikes, then going back, "Even with your huge pauldrons, you're thin enough." "Hang on," she squeezed through. From there we faced a gauntlet of small rooms and groups of enemies, throwing a lever between each section to open the next one. Between the two of us, we blasted through them. When I threw the lever for the last section, a centurion blasted steam through the bar-spikes. "Whoa, big guy!" I said, ducking behind the archway for cover. I turned, pulling out my hand cannon again, but Valiana was already there, separating the thing into it's component parts. "To shreds! I didn't even have a chance to get out my gun!" I exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure that's why you keep me around," Val said. "There are... other reasons. "Really? Enlighten me," she smirked as we killed the last few spiders. "You know why," I grinned back, pressing on. We looted a small treasure room, then found an elevator back to the first big main room. I pressed on to a large platform on the bridge and found three levers. One that operated, two that didn't. Probably from the mini-boss we killed. "Looks like we gotta go to each wing and get the boss or lever at the end," I said as Valiana caught up. "Lead the way." We headed to a second wing: Manufactorium. Inside, fighting our way past ore spiders and spheres, I found the original author of the note. We continued on to a room full of steaming pipework and a medium centurion. I was shooting at it from the safety of the platform when Val jumped down and started to carve away at the monster. Before I could get down to help, she had chopped the thing up again. "Geez, Val. You are a monster," I chuckled. "Been doing this a long time," she replied. I broke into some more storerooms and grabbed anything useful, then we continued through the section. We walked around for a while, finding more treasure rooms, having to navigate through lever swapping to get them all. It took us an embarrassingly long time to find the button to open bars to the actual next useful section. We came to another pipe room with water. Fighting our way through more spiders and spheres, eventually I found a path to carry on into a room with a large centurion docked and asleep. We secured the area, and he awoke at our approach. I opened up the fight with a handcannon blast from one of the new bombs I'd found in this dungeon: shock bomb. We started the fight as we often do, her going head-to-head with the centurion on the stairs and he firing from the floor. We widdled him down a while, but it seemed Val was having trouble fending off the thing's attacks. I stepped in with sword and shield. Of course, it immediately turned to me after I took a few slashes on it. I backed up the stairs behind when it swung. Then as it came after me I rolled off the ledge, coming to my feet where I'd began. The centurion turned to her, but I circled the pipes to my right and gave it a few slashes on the ankles. As it turned to me to retaliate, the centurion overextended itself, giving Val the opportunity to stab it through the midsection and end the battle. Once again, we ransacked the treasures beyond and used the path provided to get back to the hub. At this time it was about time for bed. We'd been traveling and dungeoncrawling all day, so we threw out a couple bedrolls and slept right there on the lever puzzle platform. She took first watch and I took second. I watched her a little while as I cleaned up the fire. When she finally woke up, I could tell she was weary. "Stone floors are not great for the back," she stood. "Oh? Well I did alright," I smiled. "Maybe because I'm 42," she laid face down on her bedroll and convinced me to push on her back until it popped just right. "Ever think about the fact that if your parents had come back with Damien you'd be two years old, like Damien's kid?" She smirked, saying nothing for a bit as she packed up the bedrolls. Finally she said, "I don't like to think about things like that. All the what-ifs in the world won't change who I am, or what I've done. Best to look forward, not back." "Well said," I said, "Time for the last wing." She added as we walked, "Also, if I'd lived out my life naturally I'd be over 200, dead and buried someplace, so I think this is probably one of the better outcomes." I smiled back, "Why's that?" "Oh, you know why," she responded. We stepped into the Chironasium. More of the same. Spiders and spheres. We fought until we came to another drop-down with a few spheres. I tried to snipe them, but Val jumped down and broke them in half. I stepped in to finish off the last one. I just gave her a smile. She was making this easy, saving me from crafting bolts (I'd started with about 450 and was down to about 300 at this point). Here we found several paths radiating out from the hub. We went down each and wouldn't you know the last one was the path to the end. Side mention, though, when we'd cleared out the hub room with ankle-deep water, I turned to Valiana, who'd gone up the larger ramp in the room and was in the process of taking her clothes off. "What're you doing?" I asked. "I got a bunch of water in my boots and I need to wring out the liner in this thing. Mind if we take a break? Not like you haven't seen me naked before." I raised an eyebrow, "Of course I don't mind, but, you got my hopes up." She smirked back at me, "What, does it make you excited to have 'naked time' in a dungeon where we could both get ambushed at any time?" "I mean, maybe..." I trailed off. She smiled, keeping eye contact while she stripped the rest of her clothes off. Then she sat down and started to rub her pussy, "Maybe, huh?" I smiled big and walked over. First looking around to make sure no dwemer machines were nearby, then putting away my crossbow, I kneeled down. "Like what you see?" She asked. "Oh yes," I said, then I grabbed her hand and pulled it away from herself. "You're mean," she said, "Just put it in. We could be attacked, and I'm ready." I smiled, "As you wish." I slid on top of her and thrusted for a few minutes, my youth carrying me to being ready at lightning speed. Then I stood up and lifted her off the ground, thrusting into her with careless abandon. We finished quickly, and it was excellent for a quick one, then it was back to the grind, so to speak. We soon reached the final area of the wing, a set of stairs leading to a courtyard, then another set of stairs up to a platform. A ghostly mage was slowly walking down the stairs as we approached. Val and I shared a glance. She went left to engage the ghost and I went right to use the platform's high ground. But as she ran for him, he shot a sickly green poison cloud, then unloaded a barrage of ice bolts like my automatic crossbow. By the time I was coming up behind him, Val'd already fallen to one knee from the strong magical barrage. He turned to me, but obviously this mage wasn't built for melee combat. He flung spells, which I did my best to block with my shield. I got a few hits in, but he ran to ranged distance. This gave me a chance to get Val on her feet. "You alright?" I asked. She growled, "I'm gonna flatten that guy! Come on!" She charged, but he resorted again to poison cloud and machine-gun ice shots. As I took out my Autocrossbow I noticed she was getting chewed up by the magic. I unloaded bolts as she took swings at him, but her spear wasn't dealing the damage I thought it should. Val dropped to a knee again and the ghost backed up, recasting his armored skin spell. A bit smarter than the automatons here, I got her up again. Really, I'd been chewing through his barrier before with my bolts and I resorted to it again. Before Val could get to him, I'd torn down his barrier again and pincushioned him. He was double dead. I took a look at my lady and saw the poison was still hurting her, so I uncorked a potion and poured it down her throat. "That's some damn strong poison," I said. "Thanks," she said back, "See, at least one fight in here I got messed up in, and you were the one who steamrolled it." I gave her a hug and a kiss and we ransacked the treasures beyond, returning to the main hub again through a hole this time. I threw the third lever and with a satisfying click, the gate opened up to an elevator. I realize I could've just levitated or hook shotted up here, but half the fun was exploring everything, and all the side items I got along the way. I haven't been describing specifically, but I already had a full complement of Aetherium-forged dwemer weapons and a ton of Aetherium bars and ore (though I wasn't sure I had the tools to work it). And of course, thousands of septims worth of other things. We rode the elevator and approached the 'throne' as it was labeled. Another gate stood before us, but it opened of its own accord, inviting us in. I tread carefully with Val behind, into a chamber flanked by pools of lava. I turned my head to find an Aetherial Colossus, rearing back to blast me with steam. I rolled out of the way, straight into the lava, then jumped out again, thanking my quick reflexes and enchanted armor. When I came up Valiana was already engaged with him. This time was different with the ghost. She was all fury, chewing through the thing. I unloaded with my autocrossbow, but it was mostly her. In a fight of pure muscle, Valiana always won. The thing toppled and I shouted, "Nice work!" We moved into the next room and I found a treasure trove. A full set of Aetherium-forged Dwemer armor. "Here we go," I said excitedly. I quickly stripped down and put the armor on to check it out. "Looking good," Valiana clapped, "Would you say the run was a success?" I tore the helmet back off, finding helmets in general annoying, "Definitely. I think we need to go back for things we missed though." We ran back to the Manufactorium first (I knew I left the room behind the ghost unsearched), and I found another big trove. "Mage armor here. And Damien will like these spells. I'm not much of a conjuror," I commented. There was one to summon an Aetherium sphere and one for a spider. Although... I had considered dabbling in conjuration for spells such as these. Valiana shrugged, "Seems safe here. I'm going to head back to town." "Alright. See you there. I'm just going to find the pickaxe," I said, searching for a little while then realizing it was on the corpse I found right away! I grabbed it, had some fun with my trusty hookshot and new pickaxe then headed to Riften (we'd already discussed spending the night at the Bee and Barb after we were done). "Hey. Find everything you were looking for?" "Yeah. But I have a whole list of Dwemer ruins I want to explore," I responded, "We should do this again soon. Lot safer having you there." "Yes. It is. It's a date," she smirked. "Date? I'd better put my formal armor on," I said back. She burst out laughing and I contagiously responded with a laugh back. That night we decided we wouldn't call the airship and would just drink and hang out with the locals until late then spoon in one of their shoddy beds. Making memories like this is important. The next morning Val and I were lounging with some coffee and she reminded me that, "Well, the seas aren't going to patrol themselves." A few days of patrolling, I'd been mixing and matching armor options, and definitely couldn't part with the Cushioned effect on my old boots, but knew it was time for an upgrade. Luckily, I happened upon my mom from a random dungeon run and she offered me 'junk from her closet in Highreach' as she put it. For somebody so wealthy she didn't seem to ever keep track of her stuff. The venture began with her tossing random crap out of her closet until she found a pair of Cushioned Stalhrim Boots for me. Sidegrade to the Aetherium ones, but big upgrade from my old Cushioned Chitin boots. "I don't wear heavy armor, and mostly merchants can't afford to buy all the stuff I find, so I slowly sell it all off," Mom smirked, "Got a backlog of like... over a hundred items." "Hmm..." I was browsing, "Dwemer helm of Water Breathing. I'd use it for dives." She shrugged, "Sure." "What about this...?" I asked, looking at her collection of Dragon Priest Masks. "Well... I'm definitely not a collector. I just can't sell them, and it seems such a waste to throw them away. Which one do you want?" She asked. "This one could work. Otar," I replied. "Oh hey, have you been to Whiterun lately?" She asked. "Just the Bannered Mare," she replied. "You should definitely pay attention to it. They're rebuilding the walls. Jorrvaskr has been completely redesigned. You already know about the outskirts, but there's also an entirely new district," Mom told me. And a few days later I took a trip there and, "Wow, Jorrvaskr looks amazing." "First time in Whiterun, stranger?" A new member of the Companions asked. I started to correct him, but then Aela said to me, "Haven't seen you around, thinking of joining the Companions?" I didn't correct them. I'd met Aela maybe a handful of times, always in passing and she didn't know me personally. But then I remembered I'd been wearing the Dragon Priest Mask the whole time I'd been in Whiterun, and new armor. And I didn't come to Whiterun all that often, usually electing to stay in Windhelm or on my airship. Then I remembered the side-eyes the guards had been giving me the whole time. Nothing threatening, just wary. The Mask was a symbol of fear amongst Nords, and my mom'd defeated a dragon priest, which was essentially a dragon-made lich to get it. I finally responded, "I respect the honor of the Companions. But I follow my own path. And up until recently, they had quite a severe restriction to advancement." Aela turned to me, squinting, "Watch yourself, stranger." Oh, of course I knew about the werewolf thing, because my mom and sister told me all about it. But it wasn't exactly common knowledge. And - I'm dense - they don't know who I am. How would a stranger know this? I walked away casually. Aela and the guy turned back from talking amongst themselves, and I was already gone. "Did he vanish?" The man asked. "We do live in a world of magic," Aela responded, "It is entirely possible." A few days later (the 12th now) in my sifting through the town boards and ancient dwemer tomes in search of more Ruins to plunder, I was directed to a scholar at Riverwood. Must admit, I'd only been to Riverwood as a kid, when mom and Sam would take us through here. By my luck, I found a random chest that'd washed up in the river, but concealed by the docks. I pocketed the contents for later - merely an old sword, a gem and some notes pointing to more treasure. I walked into the Sleeping Giant Inn and after looking through all the new people (man, Skyrim has gotten really populated), I found the man I was looking for immediately. "The name is Duns Scotus. Pleased to meet you," he said. "Fenrir," I nodded, "I happen to be searching for ancient Dwemer knowledge, and I heard you were an authority. "I am a philosopher and if you are interested in some books concerning philosophy, I am at your service." I pursed my lips. I knew there was a small but strong philosophical tradition amongst the Dwemer. I'd never really concerned myself with such things. I rattled off the name of a tome I'd heard of, "I'm looking for a copy of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus." "I'm afraid that book is lost. Sources indicate the Dwemer used the Tractatus to map the stars. Curious, isn't it?" He asked. Fearing he would start to get introspective, I started to ask another question, but he merely said, "I don't know. There may be an original copy somewhere, maybe in a Dwemer ruin." I shrugged, "Anything I can help you with?" "As a matter of fact, there is. I've prepared a scholarship fund for Dorthe and Frodnar, two kids here in Riverwood. It'll ensure they can enjoy the knowledge of the college freely when they've come of age. Though the funding is safe, I'd feel much better if a deed was brought to my former student Hannah in the College of Winterhold." "Sure, easy," I said. Often if you help people out they're more inclined to give you information they have. "Please bring back proof of payment. And tell Hannah her old mentor hasn't forgotten her. She was always a bright student. Maybe she can help you." I nodded to him, then took my leave, walking to the airship floating just over the river. I smiled at Valiana. "You're smiling. Time for another dungeon?" She asked. "Not yet. At the moment, I'm hunting for ancient tomes. Going to head to the College," I replied. "Well, if it's all the same to you, I think I'm going to go back on patrol and sit this one out. Going to the library just sounds awful," she replied. "Fair enough," I said. We took a couple hours to get to Winterhold. As I disembarked, I said, "I'll see you in a few days, maybe?" She kissed me and pushed me off the deck. Of course I landed on my feet a couple hundred feet down. Cushioned is pretty dang nice. I headed up to the library and found Hannah immediately amidst the dozen or so scholars studying quietly in Winterhold library. A woman with rough hair, dressed in a very revealing toga didn't even look up from her scribing when I approached. "It's nice that you want to talk to me, but I am rather busy," Hannah said, "Or maybe you want to buy a book?" "I'm here to give you a deed from Duns Scotus," I replied, handing it to her. "Ahh. How's my old mentor doing?" She smiled in recognition, still not looking up from her work. "Seems to be aging gracefully in Riverwood," I replied. "Here's the proof of payment," she produced the document, out of what pocket I am not sure, and thrust it in my general direction, still not even casting her gaze in my direction. "Maybe you can help me find the," I paused, figuring I'd go with the same one, "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus." "Why would you be interested in that book? It's nothing but a collection of tautologies. Meaningless and useless," Hannah responded, "Probably locked up in a dwemer ruin somewhere." "Yeah, that's what Duns said," I sighed, nobody seeming like they were going to leap to help me. I figured I'd try and find Damien. I walked up to the Archmage's quarters (following the clear signs) and the door was open. I walked in. I looked over all the treasures for a minute, then figured I probably shouldn't be here. The current Archmage didn't know me. "Just gonna barge right in?" I turned and it was Damien. I smiled, "Well, yeah. Thought you'd be here." "You know I don't live up here. Though I guess I do spend some nights up here with Mirabelle." "Humble brag, huh?" I asked. "That's... not what I meant. Though I guess it's not not what I meant," Damien said. "Got some armor for you, if you want it," I showed him the Aetherium Mage armor. "Looks nice. But as you can see, I recently upgraded," he replied, "Is this a social call or is there something I can do for you?" "Little of both. I'm in the market for ancient Dwemer tomes." "This is a good place to start." "Nobody downstairs was very helpful." Frankly, I'm bored. Mirabelle does most of the job of Master Wizard even as Archmage. I'm willing to come with. Got any leads?" Damien asked. "Just gonna go back to Riverwood and ask Duns Scotus. Also, got a deed to turn in to him," I said. "Uhh, alright, well I'll teleport you," Damien said. He put his hand on my shoulder and we vanished.

More youtubes: Hey, this is one more from your boy, Fenrir. ...Sorry, I figured all the best quest journals' hosts were saying it, thought I'd give it a try. It's 216, the 14th of Sun's Height (7th Month). Damien and I are looking for Ancient Dwemer tomes. Why? Well, originally I was looking for Dwemer ruins to raid and learn more about their amazing technology and history. But I'm also now fully invested in finding these philosophy books. Maybe the real Dwemer ruins were the ones we found along the way. Or something. Anyway, we headed to the Moorside Inn in Morthal. I spoke with the Innkeeper, Jonna, and Ange the Song-Bearer (whose voice bore a resemblance to Sofia's, curiously, but she wasn't telling dick jokes). Then again, I did ask her for a song and she just walked away without playing it. Glad I didn't pay. A couple strange things happened before we found Gottfried: I was challenged to single combat by a random guy. I beat him handily. Then I got attacked by two guys in weird dragon priest-esque masks. Sadly for them, Morthal is now fairly populated (despite it being in a swamp), and I think at least some of the people here recognized me or Damien and swarmed on the guys. We barely even got a shot off. One of the random teens got wounded, but Damien patched him up. Then I found him wandering amongst the crowds. "Sticks-and-Stones sent me. She wants the Lusty Argonian Maid with the misprint," I said. Gottfried sighed, "By the nines, is that lizard completely insane? I knew this would happen." "What do you mean?" "Look, if she refuses to come here, how can I give her the book?" "That's why she sent me," I said. Yes, I understand. But she sent me the gold months ago." "That's a good point," I said. "I don't have the book anymore," he said. "What happened?" "It got stolen." I raised an eyebrow. Not a lot of people would know the value of the book. I bet he sold it. "The book got stolen," I paused, "C'mon, tell me the truth, she's going on here?" "Alright, alright. I sold it to someone else. I never thought Sticks would send someone. She made me wait for four months!" "Where is it now?" "I sold it to a man named Sam Shelling. I honestly don't know anything else." I turned to Damien as Gottfried disappeared into the crowd. "Dude, wanna work on your next teleport lesson?" Damien asked. "No. No thanks. Not yet," I said. "Back to Solitude?" He asked, but he grabbed my arm and just casted it. We walked into the Winking Skeever (much less crowded, as it was midday) and I found Sticks at a table enjoying breakfast. "Gottfried sold your book to someone else," I said. "That backstabbing liar. I should've known. Do you know whom he sold it to?" "Sam Shelling." "Ha! The most pretentious man in Tamriel. He's the founder of a philosophicl collective, the Real Idealists. Here to enrich Tamriel's soul with literature and philosophy. Pompous swines. Their gathering place is notoriously difficult to find, but I know that their steward, the idiot Carl Purehart, hands around the Nightgate Inn. Go talk to him, if he can talk. Ha!" I folded my arms, silently. Sticks stared at me for a moment, then said, "What?" "Make any progress finding a book about how to talk to people? Have you read the chapter on how to ask nicely for things?" She groaned, "......please?" I smirked, "Thank you." Damian and I were off to Nightgate which was.... "Where's Nightgate Inn?" "Heljarchen, which I know the teleport for," Damien said, charging his spell. "Thanks bro," I said. "No prob, dude. Not like I have a lot going on right now," Damien chuckled. I approached him in the Inn. "What do you want?" He asked, nearly spilling his beer. "Are you Carl Pureheart?" "Yes I am, Carl Ptolemeus Pureheart, honored steward of the Ideal Realists." "Aren't they the Real Idealists?" I asked. "Um... yeah, I um... What can I do for you?" He asked. "I would love to join!" "Really? That s so... you know... that is. Sam, I mean, the enlightened philosopher Sam Shelling has told me I should test your creative mind. SO um... demonstrate your creative mind." "Right now?" I asked. I thought of something that sounded like it belonged in a fortune cookie, "The beginning is also the end, since the end is also the beginning." Which, with Talpas, may be true? "Wow. Deep. You sound as clever as Sam. I mean the enlightened philosopher Sam Shelling. The hidden whimsey is underground. That's irony, I think. You'll need this key," he said. We teleported to Falkreath and hoofed it towards the Hidden Whimsey. Down the road a bit, there was a stray door in a cliffside. "Fight cave?" I asked. "Oh, hey, that's the underground arena from when mom restored Helgen," Damien commented. "I think the Falkreath Brotherhood Sanctuary is around here too," I said. "It's kinda weird all the stuff that goes on without you or I being involved." "How do you mean?" I asked as we continued down the path. "You know, in all the old fantasy stories, like Tiber Septim. HE was the thing. Everything is centered around him in his story," Damien scratched his chin. "Yeah well, history is centered around the biggest personalities. I'm sure there was other stuff going on when the Champion of Cyrodiil was doing his thing, or the Nerevarine. I mean, c'mon, do you really think mom could be the Archmage, and the Guildmaster, and the Harbinger, and the Queen, etc etc all at the same time?" I asked. "Not really realistic," Damien shrugged, then he pointed into the woods at a figure hefting an axe. "Huh, I thought minotaurs were extinct," I shrugged back at him. I drew my sword and shield, as the thing had nearly closed the distance. He brought his greataxe down but I deflected the blow with my shield and sidestepped, giving him a slash across the chest. This went on a couple more times before the Minotaur was on his back. I sheathed my sword, "Aren't they intelligent?" "What do you mean?" Damien folded his arms. "I mean he kept trying the same thing and I kept sidestepping him. Also, why didn't you help?" I squinted at him. "I knew you could handle it," Damien replied, "As to your earlier question, yes, minotaurs went extinct on Nirn. That one was from another world. Mom told me she saw one at Echo Deep Mine. From what I can tell, that's where they're coming from." After a little while we found the entrance, and I was attacked by a group of bears. I shrugged, taking them down from a distance, except the last one, who I finished off with my sword. Then a Spriggan attacked, but Damien (still far away) blasted him down with Elemental Blasts and I used my launcher, then we continued inside a small manhole, concealed by the dense brush of the forest. Inside was a hewn cave complex. The first man to see us greeted us with, "Reason is but subjected by the automated grips of a subversive reality that drowns the dreams of the intuition." "So I guess we're in the right place, then," I said. "Yes, this is the Hidden Whimsey, a place where we partake in mental battles." "You seem quite excited to be here," I said. "And you should be as well! This is the vortex, the ultimate place of philosophy!" I picked another man to talk to, and he started reading his poetry to me, to which I slowly backed away and picked a third person to talk to. The woman sitting at the table. She looked like a normal person, maybe. "My, my. It seems we're letting anyone and everyone in these days." "You remind me of someone. Sticks-and-Stones." "I'm bored. Provoke my mind," she said. "I beg your pardon?" "Provoke my mind." "Okay, if a tree falls down in the forest, but no one hears it, did it make a sound?" I asked. "I heard that one before. It can be found in Odd Dwemer Riddles written by Aurelius of Kvatch." "Well it's still a good riddle," I said, "What is this place?" "Isn't that amusing? A new member who doesn't realize what this place is. This, new blood, is the Hidden Whimsey. The final resort for those who dare question the unquestionable. Who dare criticize the uncriticizable," she said, "Blah... blah... blah..." Obviously getting bored of even hearing herself talk. I responded, "You don't seem overly fond of this place." "Don't you worry, I love it here. I'm just tired of the façade." "Façade? What do you mean?" "Nothing. Just that some here are a bit too pretentious." "Oh really?" Damien said under his breath. "Now allow me to finish a thought," she said, waving us away. I approached another guy, but he seemed like he was just here to provide music, not to ruminate. Then I approached the last man in the room. "What has become of Tamriel? All these cultures are flowing through each other like different wines." I blew out a breath. Always gotta be one of these guys. I am half Redguard, half Nord. Raised by a daedra. And now I'm listening to a guy talking about how racial and cultural mixing is bad. He continued, "And what happens when different wines flow through each other? What remains is a watery mess!" I put on the most-false smile I could muster and said, "Are you enjoying yourself this evening?" "Joy? Life is no joy. I was in Windhelm recently. The cold, white WIndhelm, like my mother's love. It was there where I saw - no - where the problem dawned upon me. Like a young bird emerging from lush grass." "So what's the problem?" I asked. "Those Dunmer refugees, you fool! Slowly they merge with the Nords, diminishing their cultural awareness. Next is Cyrodiil, then High Rock!" "I think... you're paranoid." "What happened to the ideal of a nation? Tamriel is only strong as long as she is divided into clear bordered nations. We need strong pure nations!" "Ugh," I stepped back. I grabbed a red bottle of wine from the table and walked around the divider to the back room (marked Carnal room?). Think I'll be needing this if there are any more guys like these. The door was locked, but that was no problem. I may not be a thief, but I'm great with locks. There was a scantily-armored Redguard woman there, talking about the Psijics and the Gates of Oblivion. "The Eye of Magnus is with the Psijics," Damien said from the corner. "Dude, this woman is clearly on something. I don't think she cares that you did the Mages' Guild Questline years ago," I replied. I peered down at her as she sat on a bench. And part of me considered 'getting to know her' a little better. But no, that'd be uncool. She was drugged out of her mind. And if anybody's wondering, Valiana and I have mentioned having sex with others if the want arises, but I mostly don't want to. At this point it's more 'well, Val's not here, and this could be slightly better than masturbation.' So in that case, I guess I would. We searched the room and found a few interesting treasures, including a copy of the Lusty Argonian Maid. But it seemed like that was not the right copy, so we decided to continue on through the next door. As I've said before - I'm not the best at stealth. So as soon as I picked the lock and we ventured to the next area, I'd made enough of a clatter that I heard voices saying, "What was that?!" It was down the hall. We quickly bustled back through the door, Damien re-locking it with a lock spell (instant) and then we walked back into the common room with the philosophers, but behind the barrier. "Guess they get mad if we go back here without permission," I shrugged. "Well, they didn't see us," Damien said back. "Guess we need to get in there legitimately," I said as we walked toward Sam Shelling, on a pedestal. "You must be the enlightened philosopher himself," I said to him. "Indeed I am. I see you've passed my loyal steward's test. So you want to join the Real Idealists?" "Yes please." "It is always a pleasure to welcome a new eager sophisticated mind," he said, "But you are not a member yet. My mind craves new exciting knowledge. Give it to me and I just might consider your application." "So what do you need exactly?" I asked. "Well a simple gossip might do. Why don't you talk with my minions... I mean.. partners." Am I going to exploit their deepest, darkest secrets? Yes I am. I hopped down and talked to Nouveau first, the poet from before. "So you're a poet, right?" "True, my little curious foxhound, but I never wanted to become a poet. It was forced upon me by the demands of my audience. My poor wretched life." "What did you want to become?" I asked. "To be honest, little foxhound, I wanted to become a confectioner. In search of creating the best sweetroll possible," he explained. "Maybe one day." "Maybe, but until then, my life remains simply..." he started. "...horrible," I said. "We share a soul bond!" He smiled. Next I approached Tristan Baudet, the one who hates the mixing of cultures. "Something wrong?" I asked. He looked distressed. "Yes there is, to be honest. I feel like a horse in water trying to get out. Struggling, failing," he replied. "What's wrong?" "I can't tell you, I must stay silent," he replied. "Your secret is safe with me." "Alright, you convinced me. And it would be a weight off my shoulders. I am deeply in love with Brandy. I know she's old, I know she's married. But my heart aches for her. She's my tender flower. Please me silent about this." "Your secret is safe," I said. Alright. Next, I approached Brandy, the woman at the table. "I'm curious about that façade you mentioned," I said to her. "It is nothing, new blood. Sometimes asking too many questions can be dangerous. Especially with Camille. Now hush, off you go!" "Well, how are you doing though?" "My mind is entertaining deep memories. Aren't you hunted by your past?" She asked. "What do you mean?" I asked. "A dark secret... a very dark secret." "Tell me." "My secrets are my own. You little nosy badger," she replied. Then I approached Camille. We discussed the reason he was wearing Mythic Dawn robes - it was meant to be ironic, but a lot of people died to men in those robes. Then taking a shot in the dark, I said, "Can I be frank with you? I believe you're just pretending to be a deep thinker." He blinked, then a look of anguish crossed his face, "It's true. Please, please don't tell Sam." "Your secret's safe," I replied. Was it? Yeah, I was thinking the love thing would be my go-to. Nothing wrong with love. I returned to Sam Shelling and said quietly, "Tristan is in love with Brandy." "That brings joy to my mind. Here's a little something for you," he said, "Go check out the room behind the fence and have your joy. In the end, the best joy is carnal." I squinted, was the barely-dressed woman in the carnal room meant to be a kind of village bicycle for these guys? I thought on it for a moment. I was able to unlock a new door by the entrance that also led into the deeper Hidden Whimsey, but there was another door, still locked. So we made our way in. And as soon as we were in, I turned the corner and a female guard met eyes with us. Damien turned and blasted her with Elemental Blast - as a reflex. "Dang bro, I was trying to avoid killing everybody," I said. Out of the haze over her dead body, another guard emerged with a polearm. That explosion could've waked the dead. I blocked him with my shield, but he went for Damien. Damien was caught off guard, but I grabbed the guard from behind and slit his throat with my sword. "Yeah well, they saw us. What are ya gonna do?" Damien shrugged. He was already burning a third guard alive with Flames. "Guess that plan's down the drain," I commented. We walked around a corner to find another guard, looking away this time. I loaded a bolt in my crossbow. "Is someone there?" He drew his weapon, but I put the bolt in his back before he turned. "Man, you are lousy at stealth," Damien chuckled. "True," I admitted. We walked into the next chamber, that had stacks of books and a bigger statue. We stuffed everything of value into our dimensional bags before Damien held up another copy of the L.A.M. Our target. "Hey, are we the bad guys in this situation?" I asked. "What do you mean?" Damien asked, handing me the book. "We're just breaking in and stealing all their things. And we've killed a few people," I said back. "Good, evil. Whatever floats your boat," Damien smirked. I shook my head, "No comment." We found another room off the circle with a single guard left, sleeping. And apparently I was so loud I woke him up, but I put him back down with a bolt. We got everything of value again. As we traveled the circle, we found the last room, with two vampires there. Damien blasted the first with an explosion, and I a second with my launcher. "Vampires. Strange. I wonder if the philosophers had a deal going with these guys," Damien said. We came out the final door, and found Ariadne there, in the carnal room. We shrugged at each other, ready to leave inconspicuously. They all drew weapons as we walked out from behind the divider. "You're not leaving here alive," one of them said. I sighed, pulling out my crossbow again. Damien was quicker on the uptake this time, blasting Brandy and Camille immediately. I used the divider as cover, taking out the bard, then Tristan. Still running at us even though we'd wiped clean his entire order for attacking, Sam Shelling was laid low by Damien. We looked at their bodies, then I said, "How sad. They didn't need to die." "True, but half them had a death wish anyway," Damien replied. Nouveau peeked into the room and in a rage he drew his dagger. "C'mon, guy. You don't need to die," I sighed again. "I'm going to kill you!" I pincushioned him with my autocrossbow. "Let's get the hell outta here, after we pick up all their books and goods," I growled. We teleported back to Solitude to give Sticks the book, and had a few drinks to finish off our day. Sticks-and-Stones was actually nicer this time. She gave us four rare books from her collection. Then told us about Michael Sebastian. Third person who'd told me about M.S. The next morning we headed to the college instead. I wanted to set down all these books and skim through them. M.S had said there would be clues in books related to Ludz. The library was packed as ever. Damien went off to catch up on his work. I took stock of the books I'd collected - Mortal Questions by Michael Sebastian Novum Organum Lessons of Heraclitus I Bibliographica Philosophae Sam Shelling's Journal Odd Dwemer Riddles An Ancient Dwemer Tome I looked through the college's supply of books one more time, just to make sure they didn't have what I was looking for, and I actually found some stuff this time! They had been buried under the scroll-making table. Lessons of Heraclitus II and III, On Solipsism, Tamrielic Philosophy and The Way of Truth. I eagerly snatched them up to take them to the table I'd picked. "Hey, that isn't yours!" Hannah said to me angrily. I raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, this is a library. Where people typically go to check out books. Or atleast carry them to a table to read." I squinted at the crowd, now looking at me. I reached down and picked up a second one of the books. "Hey! Hands off!" Colette yelled. "Dude, don't worry about my hands being clean. I washed them before this," I said. Then I picked up a third book. "What do you think you're doing?" Colette demanded. "Research. What's it look like?" I responded, picking up another book. "By order of the Jarl, stop right there!" A College guard put his hand on my shoulder, whipping me around. I raised an eyebrow, "So you're saying even picking up these books to read is a crime here?" "Stealing is a crime everywhere, friend," he replied. I still had the big stack of books in my hands. "You guys sure are strict. Do you even know how libraries work? I'm not stealing them. I'm going to read them and put them back. Or give them to Eleanor or Urag," I said. While I talked I'd been backing away slowly. "I said stop," the guard said again. I slid the stack of books into my pack, quickly whipped out the knowledge I'd just learned a couple days before and cast Recall. I appeared in the Hall of Elements. "Well I'm glad you figured out at least one of the spells I tried to teach you," Damien said from the class he was teaching. "Hey, um, do you know a place where I can study that's quiet?" I asked. "Archmage's quarters," he replied, "Oh, actually, here." He handed me a key, "This goes to the restricted section in the library. I've been meaning to look there also. Meet you there in half an hour." So I casually walked up the stairs, not arousing attention and let myself in to the restricted section, shutting the gate behind me. I peered off the balcony to find nobody seemed to be looking for me. Good. I set down to read. Several hours later, after Damien'd come and lent a hand, I got to the last book: the Ancient Dwemer Tome. But it was all in dwemer. "I wonder if Hannah or somebody knows how to read this," I said. I found her in the courtyard. Everybody seemed to busy too care about the heinous crime of me picking up books to return them later. "Any interest in an ancient Dwemer Tome?" I asked. "Absolutely," Hannah replied, "If i wasn't so busy studying and writing I would be hunting those books myself." "What are you willing to pay for it?" "Well, considering no one else in Skyrim would buy something they couldn't possibly read I'd say you don't have much of a choice," she smiled at me, "I'll pay you a thousand septims. I'll even throw in a translated edition I have for free. What do you say?" "Deal." She handed me the translation and a sack of coins, saying, "There's a strange passage at the end of the book." Seeing the vein running through all these book people, I asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?" "Actually there is!" She replied, "Before i came here, I visited the shrine of Azura. When i finally arrived here in the college I realized I lost my necklace. Normally, I don't really care for material belongings. They only burden the mind. But this necklace was given to me by my mother just before she died. It would mean a lot to me if you could find it for me." I asked, "How do you know for sure it's at the shrine of Azura?" "I believe it is... for I... well... you know," she was nearly blushing. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Promise not to tell this to anyone?" "I promise." She eyed me warily, but revealed her secrets anyway, as people seem want to do, "As a student I learned that there were Dunmer who would please Azura in a certain way. They would take off their clothes, their jewelry, anything they were carrying, and they would dance for their lady of twilight." I smiled at her conspiratorially, "You danced naked in front of the statue of Azura?" She smiled back at me a little angrily, a little embarrased, "Quiet! I believe there are Argonians in the Black Marsh who couldn't hear you. And don't judge me all i wanted was an authentic experience and I got it. Anyway... will you find my necklace?" "Sure," I replied. "Great. And when you arrive at the shrine, don't forget to marvel at the sight of the statue. It is magnificent." Damien still had some work to catch up on, so I traveled south on foot. I passed through Amol City, one of the newer towns rebuilt from the Great War. Just a trek up the path, killing an attacking bear along the way, and I was at the Shrine. There were a few people around: the priestess at the top, a khajiit monk milling about on the right side, and a strange man off to the left. I figured I'd talk to the weird guy first. "Sorry to disturb you. I'm looking for a necklace. Someone lost it here." "Necklace you say? Hedgedecker knows nothing about no necklace. Now leave me alone," he said. Hedgedecker? I had him pegged right. Weird. "What are you hiding?" I asked. "Nothing. Leave me be. "I am just curious you don't want me to become angry, do you?" I asked. "All right, all right. Don't be pushy with Hedgedecker. Hedgedecker is just a bit angry sometimes. Hedgedecker found a necklace but Hedgedecker sold it," he replied. "Sold it, to who?" I asked. "Sold it to to a merchant. Eckart Silvanor was his name. An elf by blood. Now leave Hedgedacker be." Alright, I shrugged. Maybe go back to Sticks and tell her the situation. I figured I might see who else was hanging out, since I made the trek. I approached the Khajiit. "Greetings, traveler. I am Qa'dojo, a monk making the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Azura." "Not everyday I meet a daedric monk." "Then today will be no different than any other. I'm the regular kind," he replied. He started explaining his doctrine, but I decided I didn't have time for a long-winded explanation. I approached the priestess. "Azura has seen your coming, traveler. I am Aranea, I keep the statue," she said. The silver-eyed Dunmer was beautiful, and now had my attention. "Seen my coming? What do you mean?" I asked. "Azura has given me the gift of foresight. I had a vision of you walking up the steps to this altar long before you were born." Oh, right. Elves. She's probably waaaaay older than me, even through she looks like a hot twenty-something. "You've been chosen to be her champion. I know it's unexpected, but do not worry. It will all unfold as she has predicted." I think what she meant to say is I'm the first rube that came up here. But i might as well. Azura is one of the more agreeable Daedric princes (princesses?) "Very well what does Azura need?" I asked. "You must go to a fortress endangered by water yet untouched by it. Inside you will find an elven mage who can turn the brightest star as black as night. It is cryptic, I know but Azura's signs are never wrong." Hard to be wrong when you're so cryptic. "I believe the fortress may refer to Winterhold ask if they know this elven enchanter," Aranea continued, "This has all been foreseen and we must play our parts." I used Recall to get back to the college, then walked up to the library. Fearing they'd try and take me to jail again (the books were still piled in the private room) nobody paid me any mind. I approached Hannah, "I'm afraid your necklace is no longer at the Shrine." "What do you mean?" "A strange man named Hedgedecker found it and sold it to a man named Eckart Silvanor." She thought for a minute, then she said, "Wait i know that man. He trades books with Sticks-and-Stones, a former fellow student of mine. She is a cynical Argonian who has perfected the art of giving insults. Don't take it too personally if she insults you. It's just her style." I smirked, "Met her. May have taken her insults too personally." "Anyway, Eckert might just be in the Winking Skeever." "Alright," I replied. I found Damien still up at the stacks and he agreed port me to Solitude, but headed back to the College. I found the man, sitting across from Sticks. He got up as I entered and I crossed paths with him near the stairs. "Yes?" He turned, realizing I was here for him. "Excuse me, did you buy a necklace from a man named Hedgedecker at the Shrine of Azura?" I asked. "Yes." "I would love to have that necklace back. It belongs to a friend of mine." "Well, I'm sorry then. I don't have that necklace anymore. I was robbed a couple of days ago while travelling to Solitude." "That sucks," I said. "They left me my books but took all my septims and that necklace. "You know where these bandits might be?" I asked. "I was robbed near the old Kilkreath Ruins, near Dragon Bridge. I managed to put up a fight but they were simply stronger." "Lucky to be alive, how Skyrim bandits usually are," I commented. "I did however manage to track them down. If you're thinking on going after them, I can mark their hideout on your map," he said. "I'll get your money back too." "That would be very nice of you, but don't get yourself killed because of me." I checked where he marked on the map. Dragon Bridge was relatively close, but their hideout was in the Rift! And Damien was back at the college. Not yet having enough courage to try teleportation again, I decided I would take the carriage to Shor's Stone and take a nap. Right off my nap at the outskirts of Shor's Stone I found two gray wolves attacking a man and his horse. I took them down with my crossbow. He thanked me and I ventured into the wilderness. An old ruined tower. I traveled up the hills a bit, fighting a tiger, a boar, a bear, a bobcat, a panda (not hostile... but... why?) and an Ancient Spriggan Patriarch. I didn't have a lot of trouble, per se, but the spriggan did launch me up into the air. Thank the gods for my cushioned boots. I fell to the ground harmlessly. But it still hurt my pride! I sprinted back up the hill, not encountering the Spriggan again. Instead, I found a couple ogres at the base of the tower, that I misidentified as giant Goblins. After I dispatched the ogres, I used my hookshot to ascend to the top of the tower. What I found was... a lady giving a man a massage. The man was a dark-skinned daedra. And an orc bandit was trying to slash him up, but the daedra was paying absolutely no attention to his assailant. "You... ok?" I asked, confused. "Meh. Sensation is good. I can barely feel it though," he shrugged. I tilted my head. In any case, it seemed this man was all that remained of the bandit group that'd robbed Eckhart Silvanor. I quickly downed him and grabbed the necklace. "There's liquor if you want to pull up a chair, traveler," he said. He sat down, and I shrugged, figuring I could do the same. I sat and he said, "Batheru usually sends Nords up here so I can maim them and feed the to the wolves. I'm Dravos. For the time being, anyhow. That crabby dunmer below thought I should have one. Thankfully a really smart fellow invented lies, or else this charade would be impossible." "You don't serve Mehrunes Dagon or whoever?" I asked. "Well, I did. I was Kynval. It all changed when I was summoned to the mortal plane by a man carrying a large staff shaped like a rose." I scratched my chin. Damien had it when he was time-displaced. It passed through a few hands since then. I think mom currently still has it from when she got into a drinking contest with Sanguine. So Dravos had been on Nirn for 20 years or more. "This old man wanted me to crush bandits. Something about his son being beaten to death by them. Real boring stuff. These guys didn't fight like bandits. Didn't look like bandits. And they all had a lot of wine," Dravos explained. "What happened?" "I started getting weird tingly feelings. Mortals call it free will. I was tired, and I wanted to rest. Turns out the old man was Sanguine," he chuckled, "He offered me a beer." I chuckled loudly, "That sounds like him. Damien's father." I didn't say much to the dunmer downstairs. He talked my ear off about killing Nords to pay them back for treating them badly. I'm half nord, so I just kinda left. I Recalled again, returning to the college library. "I found your necklace," I said to Hannah as she stood on a table in front of me. She smiled at me brightly, "You're amazing! Thanks! When i was a little girl I used to collect small shiny objects. I thought they were so beautiful. Here, have one. I also throw in a book from my personal collection. It is quite provocative. It's from an old friend of mine. By the way I heard Michael Sebastian of Bruma is meditating in the Biosas Late." I nodded. I found Damien in the restricted books area, "Find anything?" "Not really," Damien replied. "It's all right. I think we need to go back to Michael Sebastian. Three separate people told us to go there. He groaned, "That blowhard that refused to tell us where the university was though he clearly knew it." "That's the one," I replied. We traveled back there quickly and found him enjoying a drink at the downstairs bar. "I'm having a lot of trouble finding the key and the academy," I said. "I had a feeling the task might be a bit difficult, you know. I'm willing to help you. A little nudge you in the right direction, so to say. It will be clear to you where the key and academy are but you still have to find them yourself. It does take away the fun and satisfaction of solving this yourself, however. Do you want me to nudge you in the right direction?" "Wasn't it you wanted me to find it? If you knew where it was the whole time...." I sighed, accepting the help, "Yes please. Help me however you can." "Just follow your intuition you will find them," he said, seeming to offer very little actual help. I blinked, "The key is in High Hrothgar." Damien furrowed his brow, "I have no idea how you came to that conclusion." "Intuition!" Sebastian said. "By the way, we've been inside the hidden whimsy," I said. "When people share a set of beliefs, I have nothing against it when they group together. But this group is mostly motivated by a fear for the loss of cultural integrity by refugees and persons from other cultural backgrounds. In order to resist this threat they group together and continuously confirm each other's convictions. Without criticism, a thought becomes still but why should one care anyway?" "That was the impression I got as well. Besides, I'm not into cultural purity, myself," I replied, "What do you have for sale? Anything new?" He showed me his stock of books, and he'd really been moving product. Most his old stock was gone, and he had more books I needed now. Including the ever popular Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus! We teleported to Whiterun and Damien flew me up to High Hrothgar (gods, he makes this stuff so easy). The key was hidden behind a small stone, but also beside another relic chest. We returned to Winterhold. Damien, going into the college, and me looking to find this mystery elf for Azura. I want to add that on my way to find Azura's Star later, I stopped by Ebonvale.