Clark - Second Era Options

[Acadian]

Clark manages to take care of the invisible/not invisible one and the Illuminated One as well.

Finally, back to hunting for those attuned Keepers. A little help from Raz and the first one is found – along with where to likely find the other.

[ghastley]

@Acadian: Well, it was his intent to go find the other one...

-----

Previously: Clark found the first Keeper of the Resolute Diamonds, and set off to find the other.

Next a brief interlude that helps Clark understand non-linear time, ... or not.

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Ebon Stadmont

I set off along the base of cliffs, looking for a cleft in the rock, maybe a set of steps, that would lead me to the pass. I didn't find one as soon as I'd expected, based on them telling me it was "close". Instead I came across a Mages Guild scholar standing outside the entrance to something surrounded by hedges. She introduced herself as Andewen, and told me that the mercenary she'd hired to protect her had just quit at the first sight of daedra. Now she had nobody to assist. "You're armed, and I presume also armoured, can you help?"

Before I agreed to anything, I asked about the King's Haven pass.

"You didn't see the door?, It's just outside the Academy."

Of course, I'd seen it, but assumed it led back into another part of the Academy, and kept going. It had a door, so it could be locked if needed, she informed me.

Since I'd come this far, I might as well assist her before turning back. I noted a staff on her back, and inquired why she couldn't handle the daedra herself.

"Because I'll be busy collecting notes, and won't want to be interrupted. I can't write and fight at the same time."

That seemed reasonable. We went in together.

---

The interior resembled a hedge-maze that had been abandoned long ago, and become overgrown. Paths no longer lead where they probably were intended to go, and it likely didn't have daedra wandering around before. She told me we were looking for a temple or similar building that was at the centre of the maze. That was her objective, to study whatever secrets it held. She had an account from a much earlier expedition, that had found the temple, but not explored that fully. There were ancient inscriptions that presumably explained how to get entry to the inner parts, but nobody on the earlier team was able to translate them. "I've studied Ayleid languages, so I believe I can succeed where they failed.

"That's assuming we can find our way to the building, of course. Adventurers are always getting lost in here. Most just find themselves coming back out the way the entered, without finding anything. Others never come out, possibly because the daedra got the, or maybe they never found the exit again. Apparently the path ... shifts, as you go. At least that's how the ones who came out described it."

I began to understand what they meant when we found that the only ways out of the first part were the entrance or a portal that we couldn't see through. We stepped through, and found ourselves in another section of the maze. That was promising, as it wasn't a desert, or a cave, so we hadn't gone far. But I had a suspicion, and told Andewen I'd like to check it. So we stepped back through the portal, and were not back where we just came from.

"I imagine these portals will all take us somewhere different each time we use them," I suggested. "So if we don't find the temple, we can just keep stepping through the nearest portal until we're back in the firat section."

"Could we do that to find the temple?" she asked.

"Perhaps, but only if it's visible from the nearest portal. To be certain of finding it, we'll have to search each new area we come to ... and fight the daedra," I added as some came up the path towards us.

---

It wasn't just daedra. We encountered welwa and other wild beasts, and because their bodies remain after they're killed, they proved useful in knowing where we'd been. If we saw a dead welwa when we stepped out of a portal, we'd just go back through to another part of the maze.

"Over there. There's an inscription on that rock!" she exclaimed.

Of course, as soon as she stooped to read it, more daedra spawned nearby.

"Hold them off while I take a rubbing, then I can translate it even if we have to get away from the daedra," she requested. She finished doing so in time to help me with the Ogrim that spawned at the end of the fight, and I was grateful for that.

The inscription apparently just told her to look for a second one, and implied that the temple was to the east. That latter part was of no real help, with the portals taking us every direction at random.

The daedra that spawned when we found the next inscription were different. No Ogrim this time, but several Mazken, including one 'Nikalia the Beguiling'. To me, at least, that suggested Sheogorath had something to do with this confounding maze. Andewen agreed. The Mages Guild and the Daedric Prince seemed to be having an ongoing battle and if she was paranoid, she'd think ...

But the second inscription had helped, and she knew the temple was nearby. We shouldn't need to go through any more portals. Just around the next bend, we could see it.

Andewen ran ahead. When I entered the Ebon Sanctum, I couldn't see her, but found a note she'd written, telling me to use the stone next to it to open the door.

I heard Andewen shriek from the top of the stairs "More daedra!" as she ran to hide. I was surprised to find the only daedra present was one of Nocturnal's shrikes, who just shrugged and disappeared when she saw me. I went up the stairs to find Andewen.

"Is it gone?" she asked, but ran back down the stairs before I could answer. I followed, and found her tending to a wounded man I hadn't noticed before, who had presumably fallen to the shrike.

The man, Fletch, was a member of the House of Revelries. His troupe were here with Maestro Forte, their leader, whose hobby was Ayleid studies. He needed to warn him about the presence of daedra. "They should be through there," he told us, struggling to his feet and leading us to a door to the Ebon Sanctum Garden.

---

"Fletch! what happened? The whole troupe has been looking for you." the tall mer exclaimed.

"Grand Maestro Forte? Why I had no idea you were in Ebon Stadmont," Andewen interjected.

"I'm simply Maestro Forte. Hardly worthy of Grand as yet."

I talked to the Maestro, and passed on Fletch's warning about daedra. I didn't understand why they hadn't encountered any on there way in, but perhaps they were luckier than we were with the portals, and bypassed the spawns Andewen and I encountered. That seemed likely as he hadn't needed to translate any inscriptions, either. Fortunate, as translation was beyond his knowledge. "Do you suppose Andewen could translate the Northern Stone?" he asked."It's at the end of that path, you can't miss it."

Well, he and his troupe might have avoided the daedra, but they showed up for us. As if they were attracted to us, in particular. Banekin, winged twilights and ogrim, but they didn't stop us reaching the stone.

"Future's door," Andewen read, translating the inscription on the stone. "It's starting to make some sense now. There were a few things that disturbed me back there that are falling into place.

"The room where we found Fletch was identical to the one where we came into the Ebon Sanctum, but without the cobwebs and broken pews. As if the door in between wasn't into a different room, but a different time. And with Grand Maestro Forte insisting he wasn't Grand yet, I'm thinking that's exactly what happened. We're in the past. The research I read to find this place was probably written by the Maestro, after they left."

"So the inscription is telling us that this door here will take us back to the future, our present?" I asked.

"Yes, and we'd better do so as quickly as possible, before we do anything more that could affect past events. I'm worried already that I might have so by healing Fletch. There was a skeleton the first room right where I found Fletch wounded in the second one. Perhaps he was supposed to die, and I've broken time!"

I opened the door and stepped through, expecting her to follow, but instead I heard her voice ahead of me in another room.

The Andewen I found looked very old, and Altmer live a very long time. More time had elapsed for her than just a return to her present. My head was spinning trying to work out what that meant for me, as I was more than an elf's lifetime into my own past.

"Finally you've arrived! The door wouldn't work for me. I tried to follow, but it wouldn't open. So I had to wait. I tried to find a way out through the portals, but they just lead me back here.

"For decades, I've been studying the language of the inscriptions, trying to find a way out, and I've finally managed it. I must stop myself from ever going back in time, and that means warning myself not to even enter the Ebon Sanctum. I can't do that, as I'm already there, but you can. Give me this diary, and make sure I read it.

"Go to the southern stone, and use the words "baneaweh tendell" to activate it. That should get you back to the right time and place."

---

The door by the southern stone took me into the room where we'd first entered the building, as I could tell by the cobwebs. Except that Fletch was there, and his skeleton wasn't. He told me to go out and talk to Andewen, who was waiting for me to catch up.

She seemed surprised that I wasn't behind her, but did as I asked, and read the diary. And then we went back through the maze, too.

"I suppose I did succeed here, after all," she said. "I have these notes, written in my own hand, that I can take back to the Mages Guild, and let them figure it all out."

"And it will tel them that this place is a trap. Baited for mages, and probably devised by Sheogorath, and most of the daedra seemed to be his," I replied.

With one exception, I thought to myself. After I watched Andewen walk away, and I was sure she wasn't about to change her mind and go in anyway, I asked Nocturnal.

"The shrike? Just backup in case you two didn't sort it out. Andewen could have gone in without you, after all."

"And how did I manage not to overlap with myself in all that?" I added. "After all, I did go in, so it all happened to me."

"You went back in time to a point before you'd arrived in Vvardenfell, so there would be no issue there anyway, even if it wasn't all happening in Sheo's realm, where he controls the time. And the same for the future part. You won't be in your past long enough for that.

"Besides, you're only here in your past to fix anomalies like this. Vile and Mephala's interventions could have much worse consequences than Andewen's mistakes."

"I'd better get back on track for the King's Haven pass, then," I responded.

[Acadian]

Great job capturing the confusion within Ebon Stadmont. A quest designed to make your head hurt methinks. Nice job saving Andewan.

Now back to finding that second Keeper of the Resolute Diamonds.

[ghastley]

@Acadian: the entire quest line is that confused. Not even the participants understand it, and if they do, it was an illusion induced by a Daedric Prince or their agent.

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Previously: Clark got a detour and a lesson in non-linear time.

-----

King's Haven

Since I had already found the door once, it wasn't hard to find again. And as soon as I'd gone through the short stretch of tunnel beyond it, I could understand why it was there. Instead of a long underground passage like I was expecting, there was a large area open to the sky. Judging by the number of cave entrances I could see, this part of the massif had been riddled with caves, and had collapsed a long time ago. The local wildlife had moved in, and there were a lot of creatures being blocked by that door.

The Reef Vipers and Welwa seemed to have divided the place among them. The Reef Vipers preferred the floor of the basin, near the river, presumably the same one that carved all the caves. The slopes were infested with Welwa, and there would probably be something else in the caves when I reached them.

The abundance of predators hadn't stopped someone from building walkways and ramps, so this area had been
inhabited by people (or at least goblins) in the past. If they were still here, they'd have kept the numbers of the critters down, wouldn't they? Presumably they'd left other signs of their past habitation in the caves, if Imredil found anything of interest here, it was likely to be in those ruins.

I followed the walkways as much as possible, on the assumption that they would be more likely to lead to places of interest than the other trails. I soon found myself going into caves at the higher levels, which is where I encountered the goblins. Now, did they build the walkways, or just take them over when they moverd in? And had they occupied the ruins as well (if there were some,)?

There didn't seem to be any of the outside creatures inside the caves, so apparently the same territorial agreements that I'd noted outside applied. I did at one point come out to an area with a Gryphon's nest, but went back inside and left it alone.

Finally, after a few encounters with hostile goblins, I started to see evidence of Elven construction. Old, and crumbling, but this was most likely where I'd find Imredil.

I did not expect to find daedra, however. Perhaps I should have, because this one was definitely one of Mephala's, a Spiderkith with her summoned spider cohorts.

When she went down, she gloated that she'd delayed me enough. "My mistress has already claimed her prize."

I hoped that didn't mean Imredil.

In the room beyond her, I found Imredil being dragged into a portal, and a knight in glowing golden armour trying to prevent it. He looked suspiciously like the one that had been trying to contact Valsirenn and myself earlier, but now he was actually here, and taking part.

I joined him in defending Imredil, and burning the webs, but the portal changed its focus, and captured him instead. I soon discovered why.

Imredil was no longer a valuable hostage. He'd been poisoned, and was dying fast. He gave me his Resolute Diamond, and another gem, which he didn't have time to explain before he passed.

As soon as I left the ruins, a projection of Valsirenn summoned me back to Artaeum, so I made my way there, hoping for some explanation. I especially wanted to know what use a Resolute Diamond was to us without its keeper.

---

Iachesis took one look at the gem Imredil had given me (not the Resolute Diamond, the other one), and told me it was a Dawnstar gem, associated with Meridia, and it was her Golden Knight that had probably dropped it, or given it to Imredil. He took me down to the Dreaming cave, where there was a portal to Oblivion, blocked by a glowing barrier of daedric origin (or so Iachesis informed me). He'd recovered some of his lost memory, and now recalled bringing the Heart of Transparent Law down here, and going through that portal. Of course, he couldn't retrace his path with that barrier in place.

"Hold the Dawnstar gem near the barrier, and see what it does," he requested.

I did so, and the barrier recoiled a little, but not all the way.

"We'll need to reunite the gem with Dawnbreaker before we can get through," Iachesis proclaimed. "And that means finding the Golden Knight who bears it. We will need Meridia's assistance in locating him, but using the Dreaming Cave to contact her is too dangerous with this barrier here. It will most likely relay everything to Mephala, Vile and Nocturnal."

I went outside to find Leythen and Valsirenn, to see if they had any idea how to contact Meridia. I'd already asked Nocturnal if she knew anything, but Mephala hadn't shared any information with her. Meridia was our only option.

Leythen informed me that Mephala's cultists had attacked Meridia's cultists wherever they could find them, and there were not likely to be many left to ask for directions to any of her shrines. He suspected that Vile's cultists and Nocturnal's had taken similar actions, including against the cults of any other Daedric Princes that had got involved in the conflict.

"The cultists are at war with each other?" I asked. "I always assumed they just ignored each other, as a lost cause."

Leythen responded that he'd been informed by Mephala that this was the case now, because the Daedric Princes themselves were in conflict. The Court of Bedlam, the direct agents of the the triad, had nothing to do with the cults, but were kept informed as the cultists could be dangerous in times like these.

I decided at this point to let Razum-Dar know of the cultist war, and at the same time, I could ask if he knew of any Meridian shrine on the island.

---

That was a good call. Not only did he know of a shrine, but one of Raz's personal friends was a member of her cult there. He'd like to make sure she was safe.

We travelled together to Eton Nir Grotto, which was the site of the shrine. We found Sadara-do (Raz's friend) outside. She fled from the attack, and was afraid to try and go back in, with all the daedra the Mephala cultists had summoned still in there.

"Raz and Sadara-do will try and enter through a side-entrance. You go in the regular entrance, and attract their attention away from us," Raz decided.

I didn't like to admit it, but that was actually the best plan. If we all tried to sneak in, we were more likely to give ourselves away as a larger group. Two could do so, while three might not. And a distraction would certainly make it easier for Sadara-do to get through. Nocturnal also reminded me that I was the only one here who was immortal, even if the others didn't know that.

I probably had her help fighting my way in. The daedra never attacked me as large groups, and seemed oblivious to battles that they should have been able to hear. And although I didn't know the way, I seemed to take the most direct route.

I reached the shrine as efficiently as I could, it seemed. As I approached, a light began to shine at the top of the statue of Meridia, between her upraised hands. It lit up her face, and also let me see that Raz and Sadara-do had made it here safely. Sadara was dismayed by the state of the shrine, with dead bodies strewn around, amd furniture broken everywhere, but the re-appearance of the light gave her hope.

"Meridia is still here, and wants to talk with us," she proclaimed.

"The statue wants to talk? To Raz?" Raz said, puzzled.

"My followers murdered. My shrine desecrated. The other Daedric Princes must answer for these insults. But I sense a question in your mind. Speak. Ask what you will of the Prince of Light."

"Your Golden Knight was captured and his sword damaged. We seek you guidance on how to repair it," I responded.

"They dare to steal my vessel? To hold prisoner the agent I put in place to foil their despicable plans? My light will not be snuffed out! You must set Darien Gautier free!"

"Darien is the Golden Knight's name?" I asked.

"He thinks of himself as the mortal Darien Gautier, but he is the vessel of my power in your realm. You and he will need to work together to end this. You must enter Mephala's realm and retrieve him."

"I have the Dawnstar gem from the sword. Will that help?" I added

"You can use it to locate Darien. Now return to the Ritemaster and tell him what I said."

[Acadian]

Too late to save Imredil so I guess that breaks the Resolute Diamond attuned pair. And who is this golden knight who keeps appearing?

It seems a chat with Iachesis, Raz and Meridia is in order – and fruitful. So the golden boy is actually the handsome but incorrigible skirt-chaser Darien Guatier. And Clark has instructions on how to repair Dawnbreaker.

Yup, time to update Iachesis.

Random but slightly related tidbit: Though she has explored the vast depths and breadths of ESO, Buffy can count on the fingers of one small hand the number of men she has been attracted to in the Second Era. One of those was Iachesis. If only he’d been a few centuries younger and not destined for. . . well, Clark will find out.