Posted by
Paul M June 6, 2014 -
431 views
I'm feeling buoyant after defeating the dragon on the roof of Winterhold college, so I decide to start Loredas the 6th of Heartfire with a trek into the mountains. I'm stocked with potions from last night's spin on the alchemy table, and I've learnt a whole bunch of new spells since coming here that I'm itching to use. I decide I'll continue my training with the field trip the wizard mentioned when I first enrolled, and a quick check of my map tells me that'll mean a hefty stroll southwest over the mountains. Let adventure commence!
There's a storm blowing as I head over the first peak, and I can't see much. I do spot three robed people walking down the road ahead of me, and while they are most likely fellow mages, they could well be my old adversaries the Fellglow keep posse on an extended sojourn. I decide to watch them for a bit, and become a little concerned when I see them fighting a foe that I can't see at all at this distance. Two of them fall, before the third starts walking back in my direction. I prefer my odds at any rate, so go and see what all the ruckus was.
Turns out it was three imperial soldiers, and by the remains in the snow I think they came upon an ice wraith. I loot the remains of weapons and ingredients, but leave their uniforms, and continue on my way. Within a few seconds I am directly above where I want to be, and cautiously make my descent over the ice covered rocks to Saarthal.
I chat to Tolfdir, who says this is going to be a journey of exploration that will also teach us the dangers of magic. Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me, but Tolfdir strikes me as a competent wizard so I decide to go for it. Inside I make good use of my new mage light spell to light up the caverns. Apparently this is one of the oldest human cities in Skyrim. I find a funky amulet that sets off a trap, and then figure out the "secret" to escaping, which is basically keep the thing I took and barge my way out. Nice trap there lads.
But there's a bit more to it. In the next room there's a vision from the Psijic order, who according to Tolfdir are a bunch of mysterious mages who vanished 100 years ago. We go to enter the next room but find two zombies. Tolfdir does nothing to start with and just stares at the corpse in front of us, so I follow his lead before realising that zombies are never on our side. They go down and Tolf rushes into the next room while I empty their pockets of small change.
We clear some more zombies out before Tolf decides I'd be better carrying on alone. Pressing on, it's hard not to reminisce about my first fledgling steps in the Riverwood crypts. There's the same caverns, and burial chambers and cobwebs. I take it cautiously once again, but this time with the knowledge that I've got something to back it up other than my charming voice.
I sneak past a lot of chambers, all with skeletons slumbering peacefully. Before leaving the last one I decide to cast some fire runes in strategic points, in the hope that they will prevent any rascals trying to come up and bushwhack me. It's 7:20pm by the time I come to a room with a lever in. This means it'll be either do or die when the mechanism starts and wakes any of the corpses. I cast a quick oakflesh spell and commit myself to whatever may come.
It turns out it's some sort of puzzle though, and pulling the lever while two pillars are in the wrong orientation sets off some darts that bounce off my oaky skin. I have a go at various combinations, before turning back to see if there are any clues in the previous chamber. Sure enough both this one and the next room up have movable pillars. I try leaving the other two rooms as they are and having every pillar different on either side, but that doesn't work. Traipsing back and forth trying things I decide to cover the place in fire runes just in case something really unexpected happens. I keep trying combinations randomly and then at 10pm decide to stop and have a think. My chances of correctly guessing any one pillar is 1 in 3. To get two right is 1 in 9 combinations. Three pillars correct is 1 in 27. All six is 1 in 729. That's if they have set positions and I am not looking for a pattern in any order. I have one final try with all the pillars set as one type of animal but then call it quits.
With mage and candle light I take a good look around the way I came in, picking up some rubies and gold, but not finding anything that offers a clue to the six pillar problem up ahead. I come back to where I left Tolfdir but either he knows a great invisibility spell or he's wandered off somewhere. He's old I suppose: he probably went to find a toilet somewhere. It's nearly 1am, so I have a snack and an alcoholic pick me up before continuing on. After pulling a couple of chains the way out opens up and I come upon Tolfdir once more.
He has no suggestions on what to do, though to be fair I don't think to ask him. I've had enough in any case and figure I'll head out on to the mountains in the pitch black middle of the night rather than keep on messing around down here against impossible odds. There's a thick snowstorm when I get topside, and although I find two unowned bedrolls I think the reason they're unowned is because their true owners got hypothermia sleeping out in these sorts of conditions, and their corpses are no doubt by now feeding a family of snow cats.
I follow the faint path east past some standing stones and banners. Looking up one slope I see a group of armed men who catch my eye and start barrelling over. At first I start preparing to shout at them and run off, but then I notice their tent, which at this time and altitude, and In these weather conditions, looks like a prize that shouldn't be abandoned too hastily. I summon a flame atronach with a spell I picked up in Winterhold and settle in for the fireworks. The battle is brief, but once done I realise that what I thought was a tent is actually a rag held down by some stones. And now I'm lost in the snow and the darkness, on the side of a mountain where apparently bandits hang out without any kind of camp just on the off chance someone will wander up here in the middle of the night to take in the view.
At last I remember I have a map. Winterhold is the closest locale, but only because I'm in unexplored territory. I wonder about heading south again for a stretch. I still have this tree sap to dispose of, and I need to break the news about Maurice if Lydia hasn't already done so. And then there was the murderer in Windhelm that is tapping at the back of my mind. Useful as Winterhold has been for expanding my spell count and doubling my tally of dragon kills, I actually miss Whiterun and it's modern roofed houses.
I decide to head vaguely south, but fairly soon encounter the perils of doing so in the form of two cloud like ice wraiths who aren't fooling around. I still have the flame atronach spell handy and throw that into the mix, while necking health potions. I play the role of bait convincingly, and eventually my atronach creates two piles of teeth and goo. Continuing on, the snow finally stops at around four in the morning, and an aurora silhouettes the peak of the mountain I'm heading up. And it's while I'm taking all this in that the dragon shows up.
