The Dockworker 26: Mercer Frey, Jerk

• Posted by Clement Bilhorn July 8, 2012 - 535 views

  Tripped out in my new Nightingale gear, I take a carriage up to Windhelm, figuring I'll knock off my two Brotherhood targets before heading to the ruins to find Mercer. Shrouded from head to toe--tail excepted--in my gear, I'm a bit more fearless than usual.

  

  With Nilsine dead, I battle my way out of Windhelm, wasting no time, shredding the guards that try to stop me. Wielding the new bow I bought in Riften, I leave the city and make my attack on the second target's stronghold in the hills.

  

  The guy's fortress feels a lot like Calcelmos' museum, but this time, I don't have to be quiet.

  

  My new bow is quite a terror, but my ever-trusty blade--I still wish I knew who its previous owner was and why he attacked me--makes short work of anyone unfortunate enough to see me, including my target.

  

  But I'm given pause by the discovery that, further inside the cave, the Dwemer's old stuff is still alive. And it's way scarier than any person I've fought.

  

  Okay, I take it back. 

  

  The only thing scarier than the Falmer is their cattle. I'm beginning to understand why the Falmer went crazy. 

  I shudder at the thought of milking one of these things.

  

  In fact, I'm almost relieved when I get to go back to fighting the Dwemer's machines. Less squishy, and they let me do the stalking.

  

  I head further west and make my attack on the ruins Mercer's gone into, trying to be a good steward of the nine black arrows I found in the Dwemer ruins--they're serious business.

  

  It's soon apparent to me that killing the second target and the two thousand years of history living in his basement was good practice for what's coming--Mercer's already killed everybody inside, but I note the architecture and suppose I'll be seeing more of what I saw earlier.

  

  The caves are amazing, the brutality and craziness of their inhabitants notwithstanding. The two other Nightingales and I slice through any number of Dwemer constructs, Falmer, and Falmer cows. It's fast enough that I have a moment to gawk at the place.

  

  But we're on a mission, so I get moving again in short order.

  

  After a long while, we find Mercer deep, deep underground. Our exchange of insults is going smashingly at first, but then Mercer uses some kind of magic and Brynjolf and Karliah start fighting about whose fault it is that the cave is falling apart.

  Or something like that--I could be wrong. I wasn't really paying attention.

  

  I leave those two to their business and go after Mercer myself. My original plan to take him all sneaky-like is kind of ruined here, but I hold my ground.

  

  Finally, Mercer slips up--he casts some spell to make himself invisible, but I don't lose sight of him this time. While he's crouching in a corner to heal up, I send an arrow sailing into his skull, casting his body into the water.

  I dive in to loot it for the three artifacts Karliah seems so preoccupied with--a key and two eyes--just as the cave's ceiling collapses. Karliah's earlier suspicion that we're underneath the lake (the same lake that powers Anga's Mill, incidentally) is proven correct. The lake begins flooding into the cave, although to be honest, I don't exactly share Brynjolf and Karliah's concern.

  I am an Argonian, after all.

  

  So while my two allies swim to the surface and to safety, I dive into the crushing depths of the cave to retrieve the artifacts from Mercer's body before exiting the cave.

  

  Now I have to say, had I known that this passage led into the cave the entire time, I wouldn't have bothered going the long way. 

  I could have made that jump. I think.