I just awoke from the worst dream of my life. I scribbled down as much as I could when I awoke, but even so, much of the details are gone. What remains is some of the strangest images ever to wander through my head.
First, some recent history: I asked Septimus—the mad scholar—how to find the Elder Scroll, and among all his babbling, he managed to give me two small dwarven devices and sent me to a dwarven observatory to find and transcribe an Elder Scroll in a form that he could read safely. I took his devices and set out. Turned out that his observatory led into a gigantic dwarven city that is now populated entirely by skeevers and falmer. I hate falmer! They can’t see, but you can’t sneak up on them or past them. They hear the slightest movement, and they always investigate in swarms, never alone. Yet individually, there is this uniformity to them that makes me feel like I am simply killing the same nasty creature over and over again. Thus, they are both terrifying and tedious at the same time. Perhaps that is what inspired the dream.
I found my way into a vast underground cave, dripping with moisture and lit by glowing fungi that grew from the ground and floated through the air. I have taken shelter in the workshop of a dead alchemist named Sindarion, who left behind an excellent lab, supplies, and his journal. He was researching a plant called crimson nirnroot, which only grows here in this cavern, which was called Blackreach. He wrote that if he could find thirty of these, he was sure he’d discover some amazing effect. I fell asleep on his bed.
In my dream, I searched an endless version of Blackreach for crimson nirnroot, never filling my bag, but killing an endless string of monsters, starting with falmer, but eventually including centurions, giant insects and centipedes, frost trolls and giants. No matter how far I went, Blackreach stretched ever onward. Eventually, I gave up on finding crimson nirnroot, at which point I found a tower, inside of which was a dwarven sphere containing an elder scroll. A set of mechanical controls was used to project the image of the scroll around the room and onto the transcription cube given to me by Septimus. When the job was done, I took the cube and left the tower, which now somehow led directly to the surface.
I returned to Septimus, who told me that the next step in reading the knowledge taken from the Scroll was to use another device to collect blood samples from each of the races of mer in Tamriel. I tried it on myself and found that it would not work on a living donor—only on the dead.
As I was leaving Septimus’ icy squat, I was accosted by a daedric lord who took the form of a talking hole in space, and told me that I would take Septimus’ place as his servant after I had completed this task. Is this what it would take to defeat Alduin? I wondered. I told the void to piss off, and went round and round about how I could get the blood samples and translate the scroll without killing anyone or ending up as this thing's pawn.
Next thing I remember, I was looking for a word wall in a barrow with a young version of my Ma wearing plate armor, and Swims-in-Shadows, wearing mage’s robes. We fought our way past the undead guards, found the word wall, and then (Surprise!) Swims betrayed us and I had to kill him. My mother was so saddened by this that she told me she had to spend some time alone and sent me away.
Then I was in Markarth doing a sweep job for the Thieves Guild, there was something about helping a scholar with his love life, something about Forsworn living in a mine (but not Cidhna Mine), and then I remember trying to commune with a Standing Stone while a dragon attacked me.
Next I found Durz Gro-Ushal, hiding out in an orc stronghold just outside Markarth. He agreed to go adventuring with me. I took him looking for another word wall, this one guarded by hoards of draugr. I found the wall and collected the word, but when I turned around, Durz had disappeared, presumably dead somewhere behind me. I retraced my steps looking for him, but never found him or his body.
I woke up then in a sweat back in Sindarion’s lab.
There were so many elements, I’m not sure how to sort out what was garbage and what might have been a warning. It’ll probably take me days to sort out all the symbolism. But here’s what occurs to me right now.
First, if Swims-in-Shadows is going to keep haunting my dreams, I may find a temple somewhere and spend the rest of my life praying to get him out of my head. The skooma is clearly not doing the trick.
Second, what happened to Durz in my dream is clearly based on what happened first to Meeko, and now what seems to have happened to Lydia. I bought a horse in Windhelm, and told her to meet me in Winterhold. She never showed up. I don’t know whether she is dead, captured, or just had finally had enough. I think I will travel by myself for a while. I don’t want anyone else’s fate on my conscience.
Third, I’m never going near that freak, Septimus, ever again. I need the actual physical Elder Scroll, not his translation of it. Once I have the scroll, I am taking it straight to Paarthurnax.
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