Posted by
Paul M June 16, 2014 -
488 views
Having answered the age old question of who would win in a fight between a stealthily poisoned snow sabre cat and 7 Horkers (2 of the walrus like creatures managed to outlive the now skinned and gutted feline), I head on up to the downs for a late afternoon meet and greet with some frosty Nord skeletons, who are surprisingly easy to dispatch, given how difficult everything else is in these harsh lands.
The place is called the Skytemple, which rings a bell I can't quit put my finger on at the moment. I unlock a door and launch into battle with a Draugr Scourge. I try out pretty much all my fancy new spells, before reverting to the tried and tested flame spell, cast while running backwards in a circle. He drops, eventually, and I pocket his burial gold to put to my school fund. Poking around in the zombie's crypt I find a nice enchanted bow, and a book about the creation of the mortal realm and the early dark elven kingdoms, before the arrival of Talos to Saarthal. Interesting stuff, and I wonder if the reason this place sounds familiar is because I was meant to get this book for an Orc I met in the Winterhold library.
In any case, when I leave the crypt the sun is starting to set in what appears to be the northwest, though that might just be a trick of the clouds. The trip back to Winterhold is uneventful, but as if in answer to that sense of serenity, a dragon starts circling the town as I step into the tavern to find the Jarl.
Ignoring the dragon seems to be a viable option, and inside the tavern it's business as usual as the Jarl parts with 750 gold in return for his fancy hat. After a little bit more of a chat he decides to also make me the Thane of Winterhold, and gives me an enchanted great sword called the blade of Winterhold. It's not really my thing, but I'm sure I can disenchant it when I make the dash back to college.
Given how laid back everyone was in the pub I thought there was a chance the dragon had flown off, but he is literally sat outside waiting for me. I run while using my healing spell for a bit, and then neck some potions for the last jog across campus. In the library I find the Orc, but I don't spark up any conversations that lead to my handing him the book from the Skytemple, so I check the time and decide I'll call it a night. My healing spell is good enough for me the jog past the frost spewing dragon who has settled in to the centre of campus, and I get back to my room without ever feeling in mortal peril. The absurdity of it does seem like it could become the gimmick for a comedy show. It could be called "Tangle on the Quadrangle", or "Burning for you" or something like that.
I step out at around 7:30am on Tirdas the 9th of Heartfire, with the vague notion to go back to Saarthal and give the impossible puzzle one more try, only to find the dragon is still in town. I resign myself to the fact there is only one way to solve this problem, and cast a quick oakflesh spell and poison some arrows as the beast circles overhead. I figure I'll make the dragon weak against fire magic, and then hit him with some fire bolts, or maybe use the enchanted staff I picked up back when I was knocking around with Lydia and Maurice.
Unfortunately it appears I have used that tactic before, and I have no weakness to flame poisons. Instead I go with a paralysis poison, which I put on some Nord arrows I have picked up on my travels. The dragon is fixated on Winterhold itself, so I head down there. To say the poisoned arrows are a success would be putting it mildly, as I pepper the beast with arrows and see it crash to the ground in the Main Street. At a safe distance I keep firing arrows until finally killing the thing, without using any magic other than my alchemy skill which created the poison in the first place.
This victory feels epic, and I resolve to adopt a similar tactic with all future dragons, and possibly snow sabre cats. I positively bounce back to Saarthal, after taking a moment to absorb the dragon's spirit. Inside the tombs everything seems to be as dead as I left it, although now my fire runes have worn off. I have another look at the pillars, and around the cavern using my candlelight spell. After a couple more unsuccessful attempts, I notice that there is a picture behind each pillar, so I switch all of the stones to their corresponding picture, and again note that this wouldn't be much of a safety feature if the lighting in here was a little better.
Before pulling the lever I cast a few more fire runes, in case there is a further aspect to the security. The lever now works, and no one wakes up. I come to a large empty cavern, and cast my candlelight spell. Doing so wakes a Draugr Scourge, as I encountered at the Skytemple. Tough customers if I remember rightly, but I have my oakflesh and flame spells so I'm not too worried. It turns out my confidence is greater than my skills though, as the zombie is able to get a couple of good hits in in the confined space, and I am brought low. I come to not far back, and take a moment to have a think about how to tackle this one. I have a scroll of firestorm, and two of guardian circle, the latter of which will turn undead up to level 35 away from me while giving me some healing. Given the tight confines of the room I might be able to trap the zombie in a corner with that one, and then hit him with my flame based spells.
I give that a go, but I can't cast the spell for some reason. I try again, but get the same result. The third time's the charm, but by this point I wasn't thinking about where I placed the spell, and the zombie runs straight out the door of the room. I shut the door in the hope that might stop him, and then lay a fire rune at the entrance to the room. I head up the stairs just as I hear the guardian circle wear off. There's then a muffled explosion, but I am behind another iron door by this point and can't see what's happening. I crouch, but I still feel the zombie knows where I am, and I see his red radar dot moving as if coming towards me. I try firestorm, but the zombie has got some good hits in by that point.
Feeling desperate I hit him with an unrelenting force shout and dash through the narrow gap between the staggered corpse and the door out of the small room. I keep running, thinking about the fire runes I put down in the crypts, but then as I go I see the lever. I pull it, and sure enough the gate comes down and the zombie soon arrives and looks at it, frustrated and perplexed. At first I think this will be my chance, but the creature has the wit to realise he should wait just round the corner where I can't get him with my arrows. I try placing a flame atronach on the other side of the gate, but it materialises behind me instead. Eventually I decide the fire rune plan is the one to go for, but each time I cast one the previous spells seem to disappear.
In the end I try summoning another flame atronach, which this time pops up on the other side of the gate. This in turn draws the zombie into range of my flame spell, and I knock off half his health. I rinse and repeat a couple of times, and eventually the way is cleared. Beyond the little room where I narrowly avoided death are two large chambers with a sinister feel to them. I enter cautiously. Again, the gate is opened by pillars with pictures behind them, and eventually I get them all to match and proceed.
I'm stealthily advancing when Tolfdir scares the bejesus out of me. He's decided he needs to actually be present for my trials now, which I'm guessing means we are about to go toe to toe with something major. I make a quick diversion to a hidden alchemy table, and get pin cushioned by a swarm of poison arrows when Tolfdir decides to step on a clearly visible pressure switch. I give him a look that makes it clear to him that we are all alone down here, and any more of this slapstick nonsense will gain him a hasty introduction to the end of some of my sharper luggage.
We continue, and approach a swirling ball of light, and a zombie king who has the name Jyrik Gauldurson. Tolfdir dives right in, so I decide to take the high ground and help with some poisoned arrows. The plan changes though when Tolfdir decides he needs to attack the ball of light and leaves me to bring down the zombie king, who is a least poisoned with slowness. I'm an old hand at this now, and back up while shooting flames at it, and then use my enchanted short sword to turn the undead creature back when I have nowhere left to go.
Returning to Tolfdir, it seems we are indeed at journey's end, and he tells me to go back to college and tell Savos about this. I grab Jyrik's staff and notice a word of power on my out, and then start the journey back to Winterhold, over the mountains as the first stars emerge.
