20240407 Vampire Hunting – Order of the Virtuous Blood, final chapter
Kaleah bent down to investigate the portal we uncovered on the upper floor of the Cheydinhall Mages Guild. After a few minutes she stood and said, “It belongs to the OVB. Where it goes, I can’t tell but it smells familiar.“
The Order of the Virtuous Blood? Roland never mentioned this. What is going on here?
“Could it be that the powerful vampires of the Vampire Crisis were using a Mind Shielding spell on their escape hatch?” Elenya speculated. “You know something like, if you’re not actually thinking of it, you’ll overlook it, like it’s not even there.”
So, vampires could have been using this to escape. Now that we’ve put an end to the vampire crisis the spell should be wearing off. I wonder.
Stepping on the portal, we find ourselves being greeted by guild guide Emelia Duronia.
Realizing we had arrived at the Caldera Guild of Mages, I held out my hand and said, “Dear Emelia, you look as lovely as ever. What’s it been, ten, fifteen years?”
“Thank you, Arch-Mage,” a blushing Emelia replied. “What brings you here to Caldera?”
“Vampires.”
“Shhh, not so loud. It’s bad luck to mention them.” Emelia recoiled. “We kill them when we find them.”
Just like the old days Emelia had something to say about everything. She brought me up to date on almost everything that was going in Caldera. Sounds like Skink-in-Tree's-Shade is running day-to-day guild operations out of the Mage's Guild at Wolverine Hall. I really do need to issue him a promotion.
Emelia Duronia wasn’t the only one still at the Caldera Guild of Mages. Folms Mirel was still the head of the Caldera Guild of Mages and Eraamion, Ernand Thierry, and Medila Indaren were still at their stations. It was like nothing had changed in the past 10-years. I talked to all of them before leaving the guild hall. They had nothing to say about vampires or the Hunter Kendrel other than what Emelia had already told me.
Once outside, except for the statue dedicated to Saint Jiub, the streets of Caldera brought back memories. Unlike Cyrodiil where people only have a few topics to discuss, here the people are talkative. Everyone has something to say about everything. Might not be useful information but they were willing to tell you what they thought and sometimes where to go.
Walking along the market street, we stopped when we passed Falanaamo’s shop. The High Elf clothier was still standing behind his counter touting his line of apparel just like he was the last time I saw him. Except his daughters were missing. (In Morrowind, I was using ‘Morrowind Comes Alive’ which added Falanaamo’s two daughters to his shop).
“Falanaamo, my friend, how are you doing?” I greeted Falanaamo. Not seeing his daughters, I asked, “Where are your daughters?”
“Doing well, doing well,” Falanaamo replied. “The girls, they were star struck by some dashing young adventurer (Falanaamo gave me wink) and decided run off to the mainland and seek their own adventure. They’re doing quite well in Tear selling ladies fashions.”
Back outside, it was nearing dinner time, Shenk’s Shovel came to mind as for a place to eat and spend the night. Turning south we went looking for hoping it was still there.
On the way to the Shovel we were approached by Nedhelas. Complaining about his house being beset with ghosts, he request help. Taking up the quest we enter Nedhelas’ house and head down to the basement. From the basement three flights of stairs take us down to a vault room where a very angry spirit is guarding a fine chest.
Kaleah flew into the ghost of Galos Heleran easily defeating the ghosts quieting the tomb.
“You know,” I said to the ladies. “This seems so very familiar.”
Back upstairs we found Nedhelas sitting at the dinner table. When we told Nedhelas that the ghost is gone he shouted, “You weren’t the first and you probably won’t be the last to kill it.”
“I don’t want to live here anymore,” Nedhelas said, tossing me the key to the house. “It’s yours, I’m off to Balmora.”
Nice, it’s not much but we got a free bed for the night. With a shrug of the shoulders I turned to the Ladies,
“Well, not quite like the last time.”
Balmora. Visions of Galbedir, prettiest Bosmer I’d ever seen until I met Constance, roamed across my dreams throughout the night. Early the next morning it was clear we were going to Balmora.
The road to Balmora was uneventful until a smoldering collapsed Oblivion Gate blocked our way. Unable to go any further south, with great disappointment we turned back to Caldera.
As we neared Caldera’s gates a small encampment could be seen to the left of the town. Indentured workers from the mine Forced to live outside the walls of the town, I assumed.
The famed ebony mines of Caldera, now that would be a site to see.
The weather was clear as we passed through Caldera’s north gate, but that didn’t stop the true nature of the West Gash rising up to show itself. We were just out of the gate when we were attacked by a nix-hound (how odd, it looked like a big grey wolf).
The further north we traveled the more the walls of the West Gash closed in. The claustrophobic cramped feeling of this portion of the W. Gash soon added suffocating to its repertoire. A dense mist had settled in upon us like a blanket making it not only hard to see but also to breathe.
A fork in the road opened up, we took the left fork. When the countryside became more barren grey bedrock, we knew we should be entering the ebony mine area. But, where was the mining operation? As far as we could see the, the site was empty. The mining operation was gone.
A surly stranger approached. Claiming to be a Redoran Agent he informed us that we didn’t belong here and ordered us to leave.
It was dusk and would soon be too dark to travel, we told him we were camping for the night and will leave in the morning. Keeping us in sight the surly stranger watched intently as we searched for a place to rest.
When we found the entrance to a small cave, the surly stranger made no effort to stop us from entering Ashanammu. We were searching for a spot, sheltered from the elements. What we found was a crew of Telvanni agents. They immediately attacked.
Now I know most Telvanni are not idiots, but what else can you call a Telvanni who cannot recognize me, the famed Archmagister emeritus? But then again, perhaps they did and thought they could make a big jump in rank by eliminating the only Archmagister emeritus.
That mistake in judgment made them dead Telvanni idiots.
And for what? We found a few gold coins, and little else in Ashanammu.
“Did you notice that the Telvanni agents in here were all female?” Kaleah said to Elenya.
“Ooh wee,” Elenya whistled. “That little Bosmer guard they have stationed outside is going to be a trifle upset when he finds out his sweet gig has gone sour, no more designer sheets for him.”
Upset? That didn’t quite describe it. Night had fallen when we left Ashanammu and the surly stranger was fighting mad about the prospect of spending a lovely night under a blanket of stars, alone. After dealing with the guard’s temper tantrum, we explored the area that used to be the Caldera ebony mine. All we found was the Uveran Ancestral Tomb.
Finding a skeleton and little else of historical value in the well picked over tomb we left it and the deserted Caldera ebony mine. Returning to the main road, we turned north.
Continuing up through West Gash the road finally came to an end. The infernal mountain range seemed be forcing us east into the Ashlands. Wasn’t long before we found ourselves facing the Daedric ruin of Remimilk.
“
Remimilk, the Shrine of Molag Bal,” Kaleah whispered with a shudder. Kaleah tried to shield Pym from the sight.
Pym gave her a ‘I’m not a child’ look and shook-off Kaleah’s protective wings.
Entering Remimilk confirmed this was the Daedric Shrine of Molag Bal. I can only guess what the current worshipers were doing but uh… they didn’t like us barging in on their party. In the end the worshipers were in no position to object when we decide to use their bedrolls for the night.
On the way east of Remimilk we met a Khajiit highwayman. “Well, well, if it isn’t the ‘Divine Crusader’ himself,” he said.
He let us pass, we let him live. Fair trade.
As we crested a small rise we could hear sounds of fighting. “N’wha!” “S’wit!”
Someone’s in trouble. We hurried over the hill to see the body of a dead Ashlander. A second Ashlander was in a duel to the death with a grey robed assailant. A body of a second grey robed assailant was lying, still on the ground near a camp fire.
We reached the campsite just as the Ashlander finished his grey robed assailant. Still in his blood lust the Ashlander didn’t ask ‘Friend or Foe’, he just attacked us. Sadly, we were forced to defend ourselves and he joined the other fallen.
The grey robed assailants turn out to be True Ayleid Descendant Cultists. What are they doing here?
“They’re looking for you,” Elenya warned.
Not far from the Ashlander camp we found Abaelun Diamond Mine. What a busy little mine this one is. Several miners tell us that they’re so happy to be here and not in an egg mine. Two Imperial guards make sure the miners didn’t get too happy and pocket a sparkle or two. Just looking at the diamonds will get you arrested. And the nearest prison? You guessed it… Bruma.
Feeling the temptation we left Abaelun before we succumbed.
Continuing on the path set before us we stood before the door of Shushishi. Can you believe it in this day and age the underground slave trade is still flourishing. Well, the slavers and their Khajiit overseer, Dro’Zhirr are no more. In the process we freed two Khajiit and two Argonians.
Well, we’ve seen much of Vvardenfell that is open to us. While I had hoped to hear word of Kendrel or find evidence of vampires, Kaleah and Elenya are right to be concerned about the presence of the True Ayleid Descendant Cultists. We must return to Cyrodiil.
Perhaps I should find a skilled techmage trainer and learn how to break these barriers. One would think that as Arch-Mage I could assign someone the task but it doesn’t often work that way.
This post has been edited by macole: Apr 8 2024, 07:17 AM