No Elves in Sovngarde, I've decided to to turn my "A day in Skyrim" adventure i Options

[Elisabeth Hollow]

Hey y'all! The "Today in Skyrim" thing made mee remember how MUCH I love writing, and how much better it is to not just write shutff and hide it. So the first post is going to be the old "chapters" combined along with the new one I just wrote. Feedback welcome, but remember, no one has seen anything I've written in over 8 years, lol

[Elisabeth Hollow]

Chapter One: Potema's Offer, My refusal

I can't believe this. I can't believe this. I got dragged into another campaign against the undead.

I HATE undead.

Falk called me again to deal with Potema. I hate Necromancers. I hate undead. You're dead. Stop acting like you're alive!
I sneak in the chapel's undercroft and dispatch any draugr and vaampires I see. Blech. Draugr disgust me the most. Their dried up bodies with their sinewy muscles showing, skin rotted off but not so rotten they are skeletons.
I keep my Ebony bow on hand. If I can kill them from a distance, I won't smell them. If i can smell them, they're too close.

Potema has called me to her side. When she spoke, my vision grew fuzzy. I wasn't expecting her to use her magicka to contact me. I'll have to steel myself for any future contact.

Draugr rose from the walls, from the water, and vampires snapped and struck at me. I kept checking my pack for cure disease potions, but I can't find any. I'm probably panicking too much to see them. It's okay, Kayla. Just get Potema's skull and bring it to Syrr. That wonderful, wonderful man who would consecrate Potema's skull and I would never have to deal with her again.

The temple's undercroft eventually turned into a cave. I will never understand why Skyrim has so many caves. How has it not collapsed from under them? A blinding light shone from above in the next room after I killed a vampire. I absentmindedly wondered why no one noticed a giant hole in Solitude as I shot the resting draugr against the wall. I heard a choked growl. Oh Sithis! One was hidden behind the pillar! I unsheathed Dawnbreaker and quickly stabbed his dried up body until it no longer moved. As a precaution I loaded the strongest fireball spell I had to burnt the corpse of the...corpse.

I continued. I saw a large lever in the center of the room. I stared at it. What...why?? Where's the gods-damned door? I pull it and duck. The wall next to me makes a grinding, scraping sound that makes my teeth hurt. I now hate ancient Nords.

I try to duck through the opening when the bars rise. I barely slip through before being crushed in half. (at this point my notes simply say "turns in" and I have no idea why I wrote that.) I see an alchemy station, and around it are old potions and dried ingredients. I taste one potion; it's a very strong healing potion. I put that in my pack and open the other one and stop myself from tasting it. Judging from the smell and viscosity and...the smell, it's Frostbite Spider venom. Wonderful. I put that in my pack as well.

The equipment seems to be functioning alright, so I check my ingredients. The only useful thing I could make is a slow poison, and a damage magicka poison. I mixed these two together. I don't know what form Potema will be in, and in case she has posessed one of her undead servants, I'll need this.

I walk through the door and hear...too much activity. That grinding, scraping sound can be heard. I slink to the next room, down the stairs and see the rotating doors. No one else sems to be around. So I stand up straight and pull a lever. One door stops...aw, Sithis. I pull it again and it continues in the other direction. I think I've figured this out. Eventually all three doors have an opening for me and I slip though quietly. But not quietly enough.

In the next room I see a draugr...no, a draugr DEATHLORD on a throne, his head bowed. A vampire casually walks out from behind the pillar and addresses me. Once he mentioned joining Potema, I lost it. I ran at him so fast he yelled in surprise. When Dawnbreaker's blade sunk into his cold flesh, an explosion resonated from the blade, reducing the vampire to ash. Tears stung my eyes. I will never, ever be ANYONE'S slave.

I heard the sound of old bones and joints rubbing against each other, papery muscles gaining strength and an old throat finding its voice.

The deathlord.

I had rushed the vampire without forming a plan of attack. I pretend I can't hear him, so when he raises up his sword for the death blow, I see it in the fire light. Right before he strikes I roll out of the way. The greatsword hits the stone ground and I can see the vibration in the sword. He doesn't care. He opens his mouth.

"FUS, RO DAH!"

I hit the stone wall, Dawnbreaker knocked out of my grasp. "Oh yeah?" I choke out. "Two can play at this game."

I take in a deep breath as the Deathlord rushes me and put all of my strength in the shout.

"IIZ!" Arms raised in another final strike, one that would have surely killed me or wounded me beyond saving, the draugr's mangled face was frozen under the ice in a look of rage. I grabbed Dawnbreaker and searched frantically through my pack for a healing potion. I had about ten seconds. I find the one from the room, and see some of my potions were broken. Sithis. I downed this one and coughed at the bitter taste of the ancient potion. Potions are NOT like wine.

I stand up and gripped Dawnbreaker. I coud see the ice melting. This gods-damned leathery piece of Mammoth dung was NOT going to kill me before I killed Potema for good.

I hopped over the almost-thawed body of the draugr Deathlord, casting a fire rune on the ground. I turned around and steeled my nerves for the imminent explosion, Dawnbreaker in one hand and a firebolt spell in the other. As I expected, the Deathlord stepped on the rune and a fiery explosion engulfed him in flames. he never stopped. He gripped his sword and took a deep breath and-

Got a firebolt straight into his mouth. I don't have time for this. As he recoiled from the force(apparently they don't feel pain) I severed his head from his body. I can't do this. I can't deal with this. I want to go home to Onmund. I want to feel his stubble against my cheek as he whispers "Hello, my love."

Tears spilled from my eyes as I cried in rage. I threw a fireball spell at the Deathlord's corpse and coughed as it burned. I dropped to one knee. This isn't fair. This...drive to help people, when it could kill me. The knowledge that if it isn't me, it would be no one. There would be no one to protect Onmund, or keep the world safe for our future children.

I stood up and wiped the snot and tears onto the back of my hand and pressed on. I don't have time for this. I have to kill Potema.

Eventually I came to a room full of draugr. The stench was overwhelming. I gagged and heaved, and failed in stepping gingerly over them and ended up tripping over one with its hands rested in the funeral position. I grasp the gate bars and ehar Potema speak again. I shut my eyes. NO.

The draugr rise. I panic, casting a fire rune spell on the ground in the middle of the room, incinerating the first one that stepped on it. My panic subsides when I see that not all of the draugr have risen, only five, including the one I killed. I gripped Dawnbreaker and hoped for the effect I needed to get out of this situation.

I dug my sword into the first one and it crumpled. Nope, no explosion. Sithis. The other three rallied in a line in front of me and I was cornered. "IIZ!" I got two of them with my Ice Form shout, the other with only his arm frozen. sadly, not his sword arm. I had little room to use my sword, so I had to use my magicka. Firebolt after firebolt, he finally caught fire. Kept at bay by the sheer force of my magicka, yet ignoring the fire that would have made the strongest Orc scream from the searing pain, he finally caught fire and burned. His body caught the other body on fire and the gate opened. I ran. The other draugr did not follow.

I'm guessing because in the next room, there was Potema. She issued a challenge, and from the crypts on the walls in the large room came her minions. Dawnbreaker tasted undead flesh over and over, and when each draugr's dried up heart was pierced by it, a holy(unholy?) explosion reduced the draugr to ashes and caused any nearby to flee. I defeated the last draugr at the top of the steps by the large wooden door opposite to the one I entered in, and dodged Potema's spirit as it blasted the door open and posessed her skull. I rushed the foul spirit, plunging Dawnbreaker to the hilt in Potema's chest with a roar. And that was it. I collected the skull and left the undercroft back the way I came.

The priests and priestesses gasped and nodded to me as I passed. I went to the Hall of the Dead, earning myself a few stares out in the daylight. I handed Potema's skull to Syrr and said simply "Here." He went on about how great a service I had done, but I hardly listened. I walked to the Blue Palace, in my dirty armor, and told him the deed was done. He sung me praises and I took my compensation and left. I took the next carriage to Whiterun.

The whole trip I felt woozy. Any sleep I did get was plauged with nightmares, and my head hurt so much that sunlight made it worse, and no food would make the terrible cramps in my stomach ease. Onmund greeted me with excitement, then fear. He rushed me into bed where I slept for a day.

When I awoke, I felt better. Onmund gave me a small smile but I could tell her was still worried. "When you want to talk about it," he murmured, "you can tell me."

"It was Potema," I whispered. "And she had so many draugr, and so many vampires."

His eyes widened. "Vampires?! Did you take a potion?"

I felt the color drain from my face. Onmund's face surely matched mine. "Take my hand. We are going to the Temple of Kynereth."

I grasped his hand and feebly stood up. He led me to the door. when he opened it, the light felt like it literally hit me. I drew in my breath sharply.

"Why is it so bright? I can hardly stand it!"

At that point, I vomited on the floor.