After acquiring the Greater Welkynd Stone, and making sure that they left nothing in the Ayleid lich's chamber, Amaryllis and her companions made their way back to the opening that lead to this part of Rielle and lowered the wall that lead back to the area that the four Elemental Shards were resting in, something that Wind made a note of for later, though each of them kept their weapons at the ready in case more Wights showed up. As they left, however, Amaryllis found a stone lever that she could push into one of the walls and it seemed to unlock something, as a door around the corner happened to lower into the ground and lead up to another door, one that had a set of stairs that brought them back up to the chamber with all the guillotine traps, where they heard the sound of someone fighting. What they discovered was a member of the Mythic Dawn, likely someone who was part of a reinforcement group, trading blows with a Vigilant, where the latter seemed to have the advantage as she smashed the cult member into the ground, though it changed in a moment as a Wight, who they must have missed on their first pass through this area, came up behind her and cut her down. In that moment Amaryllis dropped down into the area in question and stabbed the Wight before it even knew what was coming it's way, though none of them had any information on their bodies, a sad thing when she thought about it, before she rejoined the others as they kept on the path heading outside.
There were a lot of corpses along the path they followed, Vigilants and Mythic Dawn members alike, meaning they fought and killed each other after they reached Rielle, and she found one female Vigilant who died clutching a journal that had a few notes tucked into it, where she claimed them before seeing what they had discovered, allowing the others to make sure no more enemies were coming. One note happened to be orders from whoever was leading the Vigilants right now, as the note in question wasn't labeled by whoever wrote it, though she found that the order had been told to find the Oblivion Gate and secure it, to make sure the forces of Oblivion didn't gain a foothold in this world, especially after what happened in the past. The next note seemed to be instructions of some kind, detailing where something, or someone, of importance might be resting, as it mentioned the 'shade of Velothi', Shor's Stone at the feet, Whiteshore at the back, and Windhelm on the shoulders, making her wonder if this might be where Vanos' camp might be located, which would be the best thing for her and the others. The journal, however, went into detail about how the Vigilants found out about the fact that the Mythic Dawn was going to Rielle to find a Greater Welkynd Stone, and that some of the followers of Stendarr had found a high ranking member of Dagon's cult, who they captured and tortured to death to get information from her, which just painted the Vigilants in a bad light, despite the fact that they were dealing with Dagon's cult.
It was odd that one of Stendarr's messages was mercy to everyone, and that even included heretics and the lost, but while the original Mythic Dawn wanted the end of the world she wasn't sure if the new cult wanted that, as it seemed like Vanos was interested in piercing the barrier, not ushering in total destruction, so it was odd that the Vigilants were totally focused on the past and didn't accept the future.
"There's a ruin near Shor's Stone... that's where we should find the Oblivion Gate." Amaryllis said, as that was what she had gleamed from the notes that were in front of her, especially after pulling out the map of Skyrim she carried, and based on all the directional markers, plus her limited knowledge of this land, it was a good guess as to where they had to go next, to which she sighed for a moment, "I will, however, fly ahead and investigate the area in question, giving you three enough time to traverse the distance between here and Shor's Stone."
"They will be cautious, with the Vigilants harassing them for so long," Za'kera remarked, because when they emerged from Rielle, and passed into the tunnel, she took the journal to see what Amaryllis had found during their time exiting the ruin, so she had a good idea of what Amaryllis needed to do, especially since nothing they found told them where the camp was located, save for the note, "but as soon as you find their camp, and can verify that it's where we're supposed to go, come find us and direct us there... we'll deal with Vanos when we get there."
Amaryllis nodded and took off as her companions returned to their carriage, which was unharmed despite the fact that a fair number of Mythic Dawn and Vigilants had passed by it to get to Rielle, where she turned towards the direction of the settlement that the notes mentioned, but this time around she made sure to keep herself in the shadows, which was easy to do thanks to night falling. Finding Shor's Stone proved to be easy for her, as it was a small mining settlement, made up of three buildings on the eastern side of a mountain that was to the northwest of Riften, though after that tracking down the hideout of Dagon's cultists proved to be somewhat harder, since this time around they didn't use the crimson flags she had seen in the past. It was a good tactic, keeping themselves hidden from the Vigilants of Stendarr, but she did discover a bad habit that Vanos' men seemed to be sticking to, she found a crimson robed figure standing outside a cave that was a fair distance up the side of the eastern mountain range of Skyrim, one that looked exactly like what the Mythic Dawn wore all the time. As such she was able to slip into the area, sticking to the shadows that happened to be near her, and found a lone Nord who seemed to be the outer guard for this camp, who didn't notice her movements at all, though she observed him for a few moments and found another cultist, a female Khajiit, who took over so the Nord could head inside for some time, meaning it was a changing of the guard.
She watched for a time, just to be sure of her findings, before departing a few seconds after hearing the Khajiit mention Vanos by name, not to mention the Oblivion Gate that was inside the cave, so when an opening showed up she departed as quickly as possible and tracked down the carriage, which had to be heading for Riften since it was the logical stop one would make if they were coming from Ivarstead.
It took her some time to track down Za'kera and the others, though she did in due time and they stopped outside Riften to rest, as while it would have been nice to spend some time inside the city they knew that time was of the essence and just taking a short break was costing them, but Za'kera insisted on resting for a time before making a move on the camp that Amaryllis had found. She and Wind ended up taking turns watching over the carriage, to make sure no thieves came over to them, though between her watchful gaze and Wind examining her new staff, an artifact that would make anyone think twice about messing with them, they didn't have to worry about threats interrupting them, in fact some of the guards took a moment to back off when one noticed the golden staff in Wind's hand, along with a large blue gemstone on top. It could summon lightning, as Wind apparently tested it back when they were leaving Rielle's tunnel, and there was no telling what else it could do, especially since an Ayleid Arch-Mage had been carrying it before their eventual death, meaning it had to be on a level below the Staff of Magnus. Thanks to that they were able to get some rest before waking up for a quick meal, as they didn't have time to waste on tracking down someone to buy food from, before heading out as Amaryllis lead the way towards the location of the cave, though if they were lucky they would arrive in the middle of a changing of the guard and take out two at the same time.
As it turned out they had to leave the carriage behind again, which they were getting used to, and climbed the rest of the way to their destination, where Amaryllis found the Khajiit from earlier talking to the Nord she had seen, to which she took a moment to pull out her new bow and readied two arrows, where Wind watched as she loosed the first and pierced the Khajiit right in the chest, pinning her to a tree, while the second took an arrow to the head.
"I know we saw a good showing of your skills earlier... but it still surprises me that you're able to do this with ease," Wind remarked, as while she had gotten used to killing those who got in her way, mostly Falmer and Dwarven machines, with a fair number of Draugr along the way, she was still amazed by how unaffected by this Amaryllis was, like she was born for the life of an assassin.
"It took some time, but it was well worth it." Amaryllis replied, because she knew that Wind had to be thinking about her, not to mention the fact that she wasn't bothered by slaying people like this, especially given the mindset of their previous home world, but she focused her mind on what they were doing as she stepped forward and found that they were alone for the time being, which was good.
Za'kera pulled her blades out as Lydia readied her battleaxe, though once all four of them were ready they headed into the cave and made their way towards whatever might be at the end of it, where they found a cult member at the end of tunnel and she cut him down before he even noticed that someone was invading the camp, where Wind found another guard on a stone bridge in front of them and blasted him with lightning. Lydia found a third cultist and quickly beheaded her with a swing of her battleaxe, allowing them to progress further in the cave as Amaryllis kept an eye out for enemies, figuring out the attack patterns of each one so Za'kera and the others could be prepared for every set of foes they had to face before figuring out where the Oblivion Gate rested. After the opening area they found what seemed to be a mining area, maybe a common area of sorts, which had a fair number of cultists inside it, so Amaryllis stuck to the shadows and stabbed those she targeted with her daggers, Wind blasted them with her brand new staff and her own lightning, Lydia cleaved her foes in half, and Za'kera cut down those who advanced on where she was standing. Once those foes were taken care of they headed down the tunnel that seemed to be heading deeper into the mountain, finding a circular mining shaft that had a single foe for Amaryllis to take out with an arrow, but she did find a key on the cultist in question and discovered where it went to, a door at the bottom of the shaft.
It brought them to a massive chamber, a temple of some kind like Sky Haven Temple, and in the middle rested the large stone Oblivion Gate, as Amaryllis knew it from the Razer's scabbard, with a single cultist, Vanos, in front of it, where they stood back as Za'kera advanced on their target, who turned and pulled out a steel blade to defend himself, though it was a useless gesture as his attack was parried as Za'kera removed his hand, before taking his head clean off... and in that short moment a blue rush of magic, coming from the Greater Welkynd Stone, emerged from her pack, turned a dark red color, and surged into the gate, which sprung to life before their eyes.
"What in Oblivion just happened?" Lydia asked, as she knew that the mission had been simple, get the Stone and then take down Vanos, before he could claim it and use it to open the Gate, but this was beyond what she was expecting to see, as it looked like they had failed to stop Vanos from succeeding in his terrible mission, and she could see that everyone else was confused by this situation.
Amaryllis had a feeling that they had been tricked, that they were supposed to acquire the Greater Welkynd Stone and, in an odd twist of fate, bring it to the Oblivion Gate to open it, to which she stepped forward and found a journal on Vanos, as she had a feeling he would have one, and opened it to see what in the world they had gotten themselves into, as Akatosh might be annoyed with this turn of events. It talked about how Vanos had been hearing Dagon's voice, that he wanted his vengeance on those who had wronged him, which could be those that defeated him or even those who might be using the Oblivion Crisis for their own ends, taking the credit that should be his, and it mentioned that Vanos had dreams of what had to be Dagon's realm, the Deadlands. She found mentions of how others had come to him, to rebuild the Oblivion Gate from fragments of those buried beneath Skyim's surface, a mention of Alduin returning, the blood pact that Skorvild told them in his note and journal, the last page of the Mysterium Xarxes, and then him sending people to Rielle to find and lay claim to the Greater Welkynd Stone. Eventually she found the passage she was looking for, one mentioning the prophecy of the Dragonborn, the return of Alduin, and that the Dovahkiin would be the one to open the Oblivion Gate, carrying the Great Welkynd Stone with them, as Vanos was the last of the cultists who made the blood pact and, with Za'kera killing him like that she awakened the Gate in question.
The last bits told of how Vanos made sure everything was right, that Skorvild told them about the cult and had him killed as soon as his task was complete, ensuring that Za'kera found the last piece of Dagon's puzzle, and that they came here to kill the rest of the cult, as with the Greater Welkynd Stone in their possession it reacted to the Gate by magic that had been prepared ahead of time and now the Liminal Barrier was pierced, with a direct path to Dagon's realm.
"We've been had... the Lord of Change strikes again, changing the status quo Nirn has enjoyed," Amaryllis said, as with the knowledge of the journal in hand she realized something important, this wasn't about conquering Nirn, it was about him changing something that he might be able to exploit at a later point in time, and based on what she had seen previously, as in who was back in the fort, she had a feeling she knew what was coming, hence why she turned towards the Gate as the others focused on her, "Dagon's children are coming..."
Sure enough the red energy of the Oblivion Gate rippled as two figures emerged from it, both being dark skinned, almost black in some cases, where one was male and one was female, the male wearing a dark robe and carrying a blade on his belt, while the female was wearing a crimson robe, though while neither one seemed to be the biological children of the Lord of Change she knew that they were his kids in name and their power was great, along with two imposing figures, in daedric armor, behind them, who had to be Gatanas and Methats.
"Xivilai Moath, Faydra Shardai," Amaryllis finished, though she wasn't about to question how she knew their names, as the information had to come from Dagon himself, just so everyone would know who they were dealing with, but she knew that they weren't the only ones coming through the Gate, as a male Argonian, one that happened to be as tall as the Oblivion Gate and was bulkier than those she was used to seeing, stepped out of the Gate, who looked like a deadly beast with the customized daedric armor he wore, his sharpened claws and talons, and whatever else he wasn't showing, "and the true son of Dagon, Tibetal Deathclaw."
"It has been ages since I've been to the mortal realm... not to mention being in the presence of a Dragonborn," Tibetal said, his voice sounding rougher than any Argonian Amaryllis and the others had encountered, where he glanced at Lydia for a few seconds and licked his lips, seeing only the bovine side of her thanks to the form she had been cursed with, before he turned his attention back to Za'kera as Faydra tapped a staff on the ground, "Father has sent us ahead of the forces that he is pledging to your war, as he wishes to see the end of the Aldmeri Dominion and their plans to end this world... as he said 'Nirn will be destroyed by my hand, no one else's'."
"Is all of Oblivion turning against the Aldmeri Dominion? How many more of you are coming?" Wind asked, because while she was glad to have some godly children on their side, especially in the case of her mentor and the lessons she learned in her time in Skyrim, it seemed like all of the Princes were sending one of their blood children to Za'kera's side, making her wonder what the Aldmeri Dominion had to warrant such a response.
"Each Prince is sending a representative to join you, as the tool that the Aldmeri Dominion has requires powerful forces to take it down," Tibetal replied, showing them that Dagon's son was smarter and more intelligent than they expected, as the majority of them had been expecting a brute of some kind, even though he fit that role based on his armor and the rest of his body, before he focused on her for a moment, "You remind me of the Forgotten One, the Daedric Prince that angered Father and was destroyed for his crimes... we do not speak his name, though his realm of Deadlight remains, a broken husk of a realm."
As Za'kera sighed and accepted the help of yet another Demiprince, and their adoptive siblings, Amaryllis had to wonder if there was another Prince that wasn't known to the mortals of this world, one who Dagon crippled since the realm should be gone if he was totally dead, and if there was a way for them to make use of his power, but for now they had to return to the fort and tell the others the news... and hope they didn't start a war with Dagon in the process.