Middas, 26th of Morning Star, 4E 202
We're spending the night at the Frozen Hearth rather than in the College dorms because Erandur and I damn near froze to death and it was faster to get here.
It's also a safer place to talk. It's late, and I've noticed that Ancano has a habit of suddenly appearing from out of the shadows, even late at night. I have a feeling he eavesdrops on as many conversations as he can, and I know he's been watching us.
What's more, he might be one step ahead of us.
Anyway, I'll start with this morning. We got up, had breakfast, and went to look for Tolfdir.
We found Enthir, instead.
He was studying in one of the side rooms in the Hall, and about jumped out of his skin when he saw Valdimar.
They greeted each other, but the small talk was pretty awkward; I know he wanted to say something about Vedryn, but didn't know what or how.
I could tell he noticed that Valdimar stopped shaving his head, though, and his eyes kept shifting to Erandur.
I decided to put him out of his misery and handed him the staff. He was glad to have it back, and gave me Onmund's family amulet. I asked him about the Augur, and when I said that it had to do with the Eye, he refused to say anything about it. He said that whatever that thing in the Hall of the Elements is, it's not his problem, and it most definitely IS a problem. He gave a look to Valdimar and said he doesn't like to bet when he doesn't know the odds; we'd have to talk to Tolfdir.
Valdimar laughed and said he'd be around later, and we kept looking. I found Ancano's room by accident because I don't know which room is Tolfdir's. Ancano was fast asleep, even though it was mid morning,
Thank you, years of thievery. I never make noise when I open doors anymore.
We eventually found Tolfdir having a late breakfast, and he said he hadn't talked to the Augur in years. He said we could find him in The Midden, and asked if we could say "Hello" for him!
I was a little surprised, and said that sure, I'd tell him.
Valdimar said he knew where The Midden was, and when he said it wasn't far, I decided to go and hand the amulet over to Onmund before we went.
We found Onmund in the Hall of Elements, practicing wards with J'zargo. He was relieved to have it back, and said that if we ever needed an extra hand on our travels, we knew where to find him.
An Altmer woman was chatting with Valdimar as I spoke with Onmund, and they were talking about Ancano when I came back.
She doesn't trust him any farther than she can throw him, and just knows that he's up to no good. That was unfortunate, she said, because she thinks he's handsome.
I'm annoyed that I can see where she's coming from.
Don't you hate when a horrible person is good-looking? It's like a pastry with moldy filling!
Anyway, we left the Hall, and Valdimar showed us how to get to The Midden. You leave the Hall and go right. There's a trap door on the walkway; it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it.
Valdimar opened it up, and we all went down the ladder. Well, Septim was lowered and dropped, but he's used to it by now.
It's cold, damp and creepy. I know it's not entirely an ice cave; it's the College basement or something, but over the years the water's seeped in and made it look like it's half in ruin. As we got out our torches, Valdimar explained that this is where students go to meet if they really need privacy, or if they want to do "risky" experiments.
As we went down, we found a creepy side room with a cell covered in blood with a chair outside of it. There were chains on the wall next to the chair but I don't know if they were for whoever used the chair.
It looked fresher than I liked, and Valdimar just shrugged. He wasn't kidding when he said "risky!"
There were bones scattered here and there, obviously not from animals, random furniture, and lots of empty wine bottles. It was lit by small stands (the kind that usually hold soul gems) that would spring to life as we approached.
There wasn't much in the way of immediate danger down there, really. We ran into an Ice Wraith, a bunch of spiders and a draugr, but that's it.
We were just talking about how quiet it was when we found the Atronach Forge. It's a round room off a larger chamber with a short stone pedestal in the middle of it. There's rings of candles along the edge, and a big Oblivion symbol in the center. In the front is a little… Altar? I'm not exactly sure, but there's a horned skull on it with a Dwemer box set in a bed of coals at the base of it, and one of those pull levers at the bottom of that.
The horns on the skull look like they used to hold something.
Septim doesn't like it. He growled and wouldn't go near the wide archway into the Forge.
Valdimar's been down here before, but didn't dare mess with it, or hang around when other people did. Most students don't go much deeper than here. It's not unusual for them to disappear if they do, and sometimes the College will send a team in to retrieve them, but it's not expected. He pointed to a book on a table nearby, and said the real danger down here comes from yourself.
The book told a bit about the history of the Forge, but more importantly, it has recipes! You put the ingredients in the box, then pull the lever, and it makes an Atronach!
Valdimar said he heard it could make other things, but warned me that Atronachs from the Forge don't listen like summons do. He'd mostly heard of classmates summoning Atronachs for Battlemage practice, but a few liked to experiment. The lucky ones came back with weapons and such, but usually it would fail and they'd just waste expensive materials.
His words echoed the book. Throwing ingredients in all willy-nilly is bad no matter what you're making, but I couldn't help but wonder what I might be able to do with it.
I know Erandur was thinking it, too. He stroked at his beard while he looked over the recipes and said it was just alchemy with a different set of tools.
I don't know when Lydia learned how to read minds, but I don't like it!
She said, "Nope!" and took the alchemy ingredients from me and stuffed them in her pack.
She wouldn't even let us try one of the recipes from the book!
Valdimar sided with her, and said to leave the book, too. Taking it was considered rude, and potentially dangerous.
-/-/-/-/-/-
Forge Recipes:
Flame Atronach: Fire Salts, Ruby Frost Atronach: Frost Salts, Sapphire Storm Atronach: Void Salts, Amethyst
-/-/-/-/-/-
We found a door that led even deeper not far after that, and Valdimar said he'd never been past it. This was where people tended to go in and not come back.
We went through the door, and it looked a lot like the rest of the Midden. Just more ruins and basement-like areas, broken up by ice caverns and narrow tunnels.
Just like we found the Atronach Forge in the "safe" part of the Midden, we found something else down here, but probably a lot more dangerous.
At one point the tunnels opened into a large, round room. In the center was one of those short, square pillars with a candle in it that you usually see shrines on top of. This one had a carving of a gauntlet on it, painted black. The hand was open, with a bright orange Oblivion symbol on the palm.
That was creepy enough on its own, but there were circular markings surrounding it on the floor, along with a wash of blood and four skeletons against the walls, going in four directions. It was obvious that they were trying to summon something from Oblivion, and they either failed or succeeded, depending on how you look at it.
I once heard the phrase "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes," and I think it fits here.
Erandur was NOT happy about that place. He stayed by the door and said it stank of evil, then put his hand over his heart. Septim stood next to him and didn't want to go inside, but the only way forward was through the archway on the far wall.
Lydia and Valdimar stayed on the edges. They were checking out a small table with a chair next to it and some things on top while I looked at the skeletons.
Lydia found a piece of paper that turned out to be an incident report about what happened in the room. A group of mages went in to find and rescue the students, but they were dead, probably killed by "Conjurer's Burn". The paper explained that's what happens when you try a summoning spell that you're not ready for.
When she read that part, Erandur and Valdimar both nodded. They'd seen it before, and explained how nasty it was. You could survive it, they said, but because the source was magical, you had to let the wounds heal naturally. Potions can help, but restoration magic could potentially make it worse.
It sounds horrifying! I'm glad I seem to have a knack for magic!
Anyway, the report went on to describe that the gauntlet was segmented, and had four rings on it when they got here. The writer said they took the rings and put them in the library until they can figure out what to do with them.
It also mentioned the Arch-Mage at the time, Sedoth, and Valdimar said he was the one before Savos took over.
I wondered what the report meant by "segmented", and went up to the gauntlet. As I went to take a closer look all three of them said, in unison, "BRONWEN, NO!"
I didn't touch it! I didn't even want to touch it! I just wanted to get a look at the fingers to see how they moved!
Besides, I don't have the rings or whatever and I'm not trying to do a ritual, so it's not like anything's gonna happen.
On second thought, knowing my luck… Yeah, no.
I'm glad I didn't argue.
We kept going, although it took a bit of convincing to get Septim to cross the ritual chamber. After some tunnels, we found a low chamber full of spiders and webs, that sort of looked like it used to be a wine cellar.
The whole thing was just maze-like! We went around and eventually found a wooden door with a powerful aura of magicka coming from behind it. Even Lydia could feel it!
As we got closer, Septim started to whine and ducked behind Erandur. Valdimar whispered for me to be careful, and it got so still that the clink of Erandur's gauntlet covering his heart was like a hammer against an anvil.
I could see a pale blue light coming from under the door. I reached out my hand, and a raspy man's voice filled the air around us.
He said there was no "solace" in knowing what was to come, but when we didn't leave, he said that we could come in.
I opened the door, and we went inside.
It's a large, round room, with a large "pool" of magicka in the middle, like the one up in the courtyard. Above it floated a big, blue-white light that gave the impression it was spinning and flickering.
That was the Augur of Dunlain.
I had the feeling that he was looking at me, and asked if he was the Augur of Dunlain. He said he was, and I said I was told to find him, and that Tolfdir says "Hello."
I don't know how, but I got the impression that the Augur was pleased to hear that Tolfdir was thinking about him.
The mood went serious, though, when he said that I was sent here without knowing why (true) and that I was heading towards my own "destruction."
We barely had time to react to that, because he went on to say that "the Thalmor" came down here, too, and that he was also going to his doom, or whatever. He and I are on the same path, but I would "arrive too late," whatever that means.
So, yeah, Ancano's been down there, and he spoke with the Augur.
I asked about Ancano, and the Augur said that while I'm not the first to come down here, I might be the last. Ancano asked "different questions" than me, but unlike him, I'm being "pushed" towards a good path, one that might be able to save the College.
Valdimar was obviously very alarmed to hear that , and asked if the College really was in danger.
The Augur said that he would tell us what we needed to know to get on the right path. He said that we wanted to know more about the Eye, and to avoid a disaster. To "see through Magnus' Eye without being blinded", we need his staff. He said things were unfolding quickly, and that we need to go tell Savos what we learned.
Before we could ask anymore questions, he asked us to give Tolfdir his regards, then disappeared.
We didn't know what else to do, so we turned and went to make our way back up to the courtyard, but…
Remember when I said it was like a maze down there?
Yeah, I got us turned around somehow and we ended up leaving the Midden through a cave and ended up on a cliff side under the College! There was a big drop, and I was about to turn around and go back in when I slipped on the icy rock and fell!
There was no way for me to get back up to where the others were, so I waited at the bottom for them to join me. Lydia just jumped, but Valdimar didn't want to. He tried to make excuses, and said that he'd meet us in the courtyard with Septim. Lydia stopped that one when she pulled out a hunk of venison from her pack and whistled.
Septim went to the side and bounded down the rocks like a goat!
Valdimar looked a bit pale, even in the moonslight, and I could tell he was NOT happy about being up so high on the side of the pillar of stone that held up the college, and at the upcoming drop.
Erandur leaned in and tapped him on the shoulder. He whispered something, and they went back and forth for a minute before Valdimar nodded, and said that he was going to try to come down.
Erandur held his hand while he turned his back to us and got ready to grab onto the edge so he could lower himself down.
I could hear Erandur saying things like, "I'm right here," and "You're safe," while Valdimar lowered himself over the edge.
Lydia and I added in that we had him, and there was plenty of room, he would hit the snow and be just fine.
He hung there for a second, then froze.
I don't know what they said, but I could hear him and Erandur talking, then Erandur went over the edge, hanging next to him by one hand. The other he put on Valdimar's shoulder, and then he counted to three.
I noticed that he grabbed Valdimar's pauldron before he pushed away from the rock wall. He was going with him, whether he liked it or not!
They both landed in a pile of soft, powdery snow, and Septim ran up to Valdimar, barking and whining.
Valdimar got up a bit slowly, and apologized for taking so long. We told him that was fine, and that he did really well. Lydia pointed out that it was at least twice his height. Most people would be nervous about a drop like that!
I had to apologize. It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't slipped and fell.
Erandur asked if he would be all right, and he said he was fine, then we took stock of exactly where we were.
I walked around, and saw there was a sheer drop to the sea to the left. To the right there were some ruins sticking out of the top of what I thought was a neighboring iceberg, but was really a very tall stone pillar, just absolutely blanketed in ice.
I took a second to look around, and realized that the pillars and hills of ice around us were probably all like that. They were about the same height as the town and the college, so they were probably pieces that were left standing after the Great Collapse.
That sent a chill up my spine worse than the biting wind.
We went the other way, and found enough of a path down to the water. There were some chunks of stone there, ruins from the collapse, in the water between the narrow beaches at the base of the College's pillar and the plateau that held the rest of Winterhold.
We managed to hop across without getting our feet wet, and looked for a way up the slope. Valdimar said that we should go to the right. He'd been down there before, hunting for alchemy ingredients with his classmates. He got out a torch and led us up the hill. The only problem we ran into was a lone wolf, but it was no trouble.
We were soon under the arches that support the start of the walkway that connects the College to the town, and we could see lights from the houses shining through them. The weather had been getting slowly worse. The wind was bitterly cold, and the snow was that sharp, brittle kind that feels like needles on your skin. Erandur and I both were starting to stagger.
Valdimar and Lydia pulled us along, following Septim as he ran ahead of us and barked to lead the way.
When we stumbled into the Frozen Hearth, Dagur ran up and helped me to a seat by the fire. They were happy to see Valdimar, and Nelacar bought us a round of mead to help us warm up.
The Frozen Hearth's bath is nice and warm, courtesy of Nelacar's experiments, so we had a bath to get rid of the rest of the chill, and ordered a very late dinner. We all ate in the big room Lydia and I are sharing so we could talk about what happened and get ready for bed.
I'm glad Valdimar's in the habit of braiding Erandur's hair. I think he's like me, and needs to move around or do things so he can think. He wondered what Ancano could possibly be doing that was so dangerous, and is worried that he's going to be the one to destroy the College.
I think Ancano's going to try to use the Eye for some sort of power grab, and Lydia thinks he's going to try to figure out how to control it so he can use it as leverage against the College. Sort of hold the place hostage unless Savos agrees to help the Thalmor.
Both are bad enough, but who knows?
Anyway, we all finished getting ready for bed, and the guys left for their rooms. Lydia was resting with a book she found on the nightstand while I kept writing, but then she asked if I'd noticed what Erandur did back when he was helping Valdimar with the jump.
I hadn't noticed anything strange, and she pointed out that Erandur had been hanging by one hand. He doesn't carry much aside from his bedroll, a bit of gear and some basic supplies, but all of that, plus his armor, weapons, and heavy fur cloak?
I admit, I have no idea how heavy his armor is, but I've pulled enough off of dead bodies to know it's not nothing.
Lydia wondered how he could do that, but it doesn't seem strange to me. I've seen him climb things while we were building like he was using a ladder, but he used to work on boats. I told her I've met a lot of sailors, and even the skinny ones are really strong from crawling all over the rigging. They usually carry more rope or a bunch of tools with them, too.
Lydia said that made sense, but it still didn't feel quite right to her.
Anyway, tomorrow we'll go back to the College, find Savos, and tell him with the Augur said.
Maybe if we're lucky we can get in early enough that Ancano will still be asleep.
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