36: Secret of the Undercroft
Sunset and her friends spent the hour following Dexion reading the Elder Scroll to brainstorm where the third Elder Scroll happened to be hidden, but as time progressed Sunset realized that she had no idea where to find another one. She had been lucky to find the one that she was carrying, which held the secrets of dragons according to Dexion, and had been equally as lucky to find Serana, who had been holding onto the second scroll. She had also considered asking Dexion if he knew any possible locations where they might find the missing Elder Scroll, but before she could even ask Isran and Harkon had taken the man into one of the many spare buildings that the keep had, one that Elenwen had pointed out for them to use.
Apparently reading one of the Elder Scrolls took a lot out of someone, so at the moment it was up to Sunset and her friends to figure out where they were supposed to go next, but she had no idea where they needed to go.
"This is mildly annoying," Sunset commented, closing the book that Urag had given her, shortly after hearing that they needed one more Elder Scroll, "when dealing with the Elder Scrolls there's little hints to go on to find their location. At least when we dealt with the Daedric Artifacts we had some kind of hint to tell us where to go and what to do, but not with these scrolls."
"You know what, I think I'm remembering something," Serana replied, causing everyone in the library to turn to her, which included her father after he had finished escorting Dexion to his chamber, "My father had two Elder Scrolls once upon a time; one that you all found with me, while the second one my mother took with her to... wherever she decided to hide it."
"I'd still like to put her head on a spike," Harkon stated, causing his daughter to look at him for a moment, "What? I'm allowed to hate her after everything she's done."
"Not the point though," Serana replied, sighing as she turned back to the group, "My mother told me that she was planning on hiding somewhere that my father would never expect, but I've thought about that ever since you found me and I still can't make sense of it. No offense to my father, but he's had all this time to scour the provinces of Skyrim and I don't know of a single place that he would have avoided looking."
Sunset sighed and shook her head, wondering if this single piece of information would be able to inform them of where the Elder Scroll was located, but couldn't see how it connected. She looked around the round table they were sitting at, seeing that the rest of her friends were equally confused by the information that Serana had given them. She had been right in a regard, finding an Elder Scroll was more difficult than the Daedric Artifacts, but as she thought about what Serana had said she developed an idea that might actually be the key to all of this. It sounded crazy in her head, so she hoped that her friends would understand what she was saying when we went to voice her thoughts to the group.
"What about Castle Volkihar itself?" Sunset asked, causing Serana to raise an eyebrow for a moment, while Bjorn and Fiona silently nodded their heads in understanding, "There must be someplace inside Castle Volkihar that your mother could have considered hiding in, someplace where even Lord Harkon wouldn't even consider checking."
"Damn her to Coldharbour," Harkon spat, slamming his fist on the table he was sitting at, to which Urag's head snapped up from his desk and glared at the Vampire Lord, "There's an undercroft on the northern side of the island, which the previous owners used to bring supplies into the castle. An old escape tunnel from the castle exits there, if my memory serves me, which I believe leads to a courtyard where Serana and her mother tended a herb garden."
"So you're okay with us heading there and looking for her?" Serana asked, wondering what could have caused such a change of heart in her father, "Won't your retainers have a problem with us poking around the island?"
"They're busy preparing my soldiers for the journey to this keep," Harkon replied, looking at his daughter for a moment, "I intend to summon all of my followers, from all across Skyrim, and find the dremora that dares to want the end of Nirn... before I snap his neck myself."
Sunset didn't want to tell Lord Harkon that a direct assault on Tirek, without the full power of the alliance behind him, would only result in giving Tirek more power to bring about the end of Nirn. Though from what she could gather Valerica, Serana's mother, was a powerful vampire and a very skilled necromancer, if she could believe what Serana was telling her. If they could find Valerica and the Elder Scroll then Sunset was sure that they could recover Auriel's Bow and add another powerful ally to the alliance... and keep both her and the bow out of Tirek's hands. She didn't want to go through a massive quest and recover a powerful artifact, only for Revan and Tirek to get their hands on it and add more power to her enemy.
Then, when they were done with Revan, they could finally travel to Solstheim and find out who Miraak was and, more importantly, why Hermaeus Mora wanted her to meet him.
"Then we make for Castle Volkihar," Sunset said, getting out of her chair and tapping her staff on the floor for a moment, "Hopefully we can find a sign of where Valerica might be hiding and ask her where she hid the Elder Scroll, which also means we'll have to explain what's happening to Nirn, in case she has no idea what's going on. Gather whatever supplies you think we'll need for the journey... I have the feeling that this is going to take much longer than any of us are expecting it to."
"We should wait until the morning," Fiona pointed out, having moved to the library door and spotted how late it was, "We've been up and about for almost an entire day, so we should go to bed and get some rest. Whatever is in the undercroft can wait another day to be found."
Sunset sighed for a moment and nodded her understanding, wondering how she could have missed that they had spent the majority of the day doing something and likely needed sleep. She blamed Revan and Tirek, as whatever plan they were working on was worrying her and she wanted to get to the heart of it before they destroyed another Hold. Her friends voiced their agreement, so she took back the order to prepare for departure and wished everyone a good night, which resulted in everyone heading to their chambers and turning in for the night. Before she turned into bed herself she took a moment to look at the moons in the sky, taking a moment to wonder about the strangeness of the day... and how her friends seemed to lose the ability to sneak.
She sighed once more before heading back to her personal chamber, where she flopped onto her bed and allowed her exhaustion to finally catch up with her.
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Sunset yawned when she finally woke up, pulling herself out of her bed and stretching her arms just a bit, before making her way towards the door and the room her friends would be gathering in. What she found was Serana and her father standing before the table, apparently going over a list of items that Sunset and her friends would need for their journey. It was clear that the two of them were expecting a longer journey, which she had assumed the moment she heard the prophecy and was confirmed when the vampires had told her about the undercroft. She also knew that seven people was overkill for what they were planning on doing, but she knew that her friends would object to staying behind and decided not to mention it to any of them.
"Ah, Archmage, your awake," Lord Harkon said, to which Sunset noticed there was more respect in the vampire's voice, "My daughter and I have been going over the various items that a group would need for camping and food preparation. We have spoken with the other leaders of your alliance and gathered everything that you and your companions might need, or what they could provide. Your good for a few days, which we both decided would be unnecessary, but one can never be too prepared."
Sunset nodded her thanks to the vampire lord and joined her friends for the morning meal, though she noticed that both Fiona and Raja were looking at her for a moment. She had to wonder if the two of them, three if she counted Serana, were even aware of the fact that they had lost the ability to sneak when they rescued Dexion. She resolved to ask them about that when they were on their way to Castle Volkihar, as they had enough time to discuss it before they arrived at their destination. The rest of her friends didn't seem to notice the glances that she was given, so she was content to wait until they were on the road to do anything.
Once the morning meal was done, and Harkon had excused himself to deal with the vampires that had come with him, Sunset and her friends gathered their supplies and then departed from the keep, where they nodded their heads to Delphine and Orak as they joined the road. Serana, once again ignoring the fact that Sunset was the leader of the group, took the lead and walked ahead of everyone, pausing every now and then to make sure that they were following before starting up again. Sunset was okay with it, as it would give her the opportunity to speak with Fiona and Raja, if they wanted to speak with her about the loss of sneaking.
It wasn't until they were an hour into their journey that Fiona tapped on her shoulder and walked beside her, while Raja moved to her right side and fell in step with her.
"Something on your minds?" Sunset asked, wondering if they were going to speak about the loss of their sneaking abilities or if they were going to mention something else.
"Raja and I spoke before you got up this morning," Fiona replied, nodding her head towards the thief for a moment, "and we have come to the conclusion that neither of us have the stealth skills that we possessed a few days ago. We tried it out in the middle of the night and, I'm sad to say this, but when one of us tried to sneak either the other spotted them almost immediately or, in the case of asking a soldier to try his luck, were found by someone else."
"I also worked on my lockpicking practice on some practice chests your friend Delphine set up for us," Raja continued, shaking her head sadly, though Sunset could tell that she was also annoyed about it, "and I ended up shattering ten of my lockpicks to open an apprentice level lock. The loss of our abilities to disappear into the darkness and remain unseen, and the loss of my ability to unlock any lock I come across, has lead me to the conclusion that Nocturnal must have removed her Key from her Temple."
"Why would she take her Key out of her Temple?" Sunset asked, wondering if that meant that the Skeleton Key was now safe in Nocturnal's realm of Oblivion, "When she knows that the loss of the Key would result in weakening all of your abilities, thus making everyone who sneaks much weaker than they already are?"
"Tirek has to be to blame for this," Raja confidently said, as if she truly believed that their enemy was behind Nocturnal removing the Key, "It is possible that she became aware of the threat that Tirek posed to Nirn and, in a moment of decision, she decided that it was better for us to lose the abilities we had than to hand over her power to our enemy."
"There is also the other possibility," Fiona commented, though Sunset dreaded what the vampire could even be thinking about, "It might be possible that he found the Skeleton Key, tore it from its resting place, and, somehow, summoned Nocturnal to her temple and drained her of all her powers."
"Such an act would have done more than take away your abilities," Sunset added, knowing what had happened to Equus thanks to Princess Twilight telling her about her conflict with Tirek, "I would have thought that the loss of one of the Daedric Princes would have cracked the barrier between worlds and alerted everyone to what he was doing. He broke the balance of my home world when he absorbed the magic of a single tribe... so something tells me that Nocturnal might be behind this herself."
"So your not worried that Tirek might have gotten ahead of us?" Fiona commented, wondering what could have brought on the sudden change in her friend, "Your not worried that Nocturnal might have had her power taken and Tirek is simply biding his time until he's in control of his new power?"
"I'm not sure if I should be worried yet or not," Sunset admitted, though she noticed that one of the moons was behind a mountain ahead of them, to which she turned her head around for a moment to see the other one above the mountains, "All I know is that Tirek and Revan are planning something big... something that none of us are expecting. We have to find them before they carry out their plan... before they kill anyone else or destroy another Hold."
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When they finally arrived at Castle Volkihar Serana beckoned for them to continue following her and lead them to the left of the massive bridge, where they walked around the island before coming to the inlet that had been mentioned earlier. Not a few moments later they found four skeletons walking around, all of them armored to the teeth in steel weapons and armor, but Serana challenged them and launched several ice spikes at their enemies. Sunset summoned her magic and approached the first skeleton, her fireball tearing her target's chest to pieces and scattering the bones as her friends got to work on the other enemies.
Despite losing the ability to sneak and pick locks Raja and Fiona still tore into their enemies, showing that they had more than one set of skill at their disposal. Cicero, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind that his enemies could find him much faster and charged at them without a care in the world. The moment that the four skeletons were dealt with Serana finally returned leadership of the group to Sunset, who nodded to her friends and beckoned to the undercroft door, where they got underway immediately. Once inside the undercroft they were assaulted by a group of death hounds, where Sunset threw the head of the staff forward and blasted the four of them back, allowing her friends to assault them.
The moment that the death hounds, and the vampire that was apparently their master, were down for the count they continued on wards, where they pulled a lever and activated the bridge in front of them. The next part had two paths for them to choose from, but Serana pointed to the left passage and said that they were supposed to head to the left, mentioning that the traps had been put in place to dissuade thieves from continuing any further. They found another chamber filled with death hounds, each of them looking like they wanted to slaughter anyone that annoyed them, but Lydia charged in and slaughtered one of them without wasting a second, before spinning around and killing the other two with her battleaxe.
They found a massive spider guarding the lever that Serana said they needed to pull, but she was fast to enter the room and blast it with lightning, blowing it into the side of the wall and allowing them to progress even further. They returned to the bridge and continued up the stairs, eventually opening a wooden door and coming to a courtyard area that had a golden dial resting in the center of the area.
As Serana began to talk about the area they were in, explaining how she and her mother had tended to a garden before they were forced to flee, Sunset walked around the area and studied the moondial, noting that some of the plates were missing. She moved up to one of the upper areas and looked over the courtyard, though she found one of the missing plates as she came up to the top of the stairs. She cast her eyes over the courtyard and almost immediately spotted one of the plates in the water, to which she called down to her friends and beckoned to it, where Raja collected it. She cast another look over the area and noticed something in the garden itself, beckoning to Serana before making her way down to the dial, where the three of them presented the three plates to the dial.
Once the three plates were in their proper places the mooddial began to turn around and, after a couple of seconds, buckled and the area around it lowered into the ground, revealing a hidden staircase.
They followed the hidden path into the deepest reaches of the castle, but as they followed the pathway they came across dozens of skeletons and a few gargoyles. It was clear that Valerica, having anticipated that someone might figure out her secret and investigate, had prepared the area with a small army of the undead, showing off her skill as a necromancer. Unfortunately the undead didn't recognize Serana, telling Sunset that Valerica wasn't expecting her daughter to uncover her secret passageway, so they had to fight their way through the army.
Bjorn, falling to the back of the group, continued to pull out his arrows and let them loose when he had a target, smashing skeletons into pieces or pushing gargoyles backwards. Cicero and Raja pulled out their daggers and cut into whoever came near them, moving from one enemy to another and, sometimes, exchanging enemies for the other to deal with. Fiona swung her sword around and cut into any enemies that happened to come at them from the side, though she was fine with Lydia charging forward to wound or even kill the enemies ahead of them. Sunset and Serana used their magic to either heal their allies if a wound appeared or, as they mostly used their magic for, blasting an enemy to pieces.
They eventually came to a chamber with three active gargoyles, but when they were finished off Cicero, in a moment of inspiration, pulled a candlestick and revealed another hidden pathway, which allowed them to climb even higher until they came to a large chamber. Sunset looked around and noticed all of the alchemy ingredients, telling her that Valerica was also an accomplished alchemist before she was forced to flee, before her eyes were drawn to the circular patter in the floor. Serana commented on the fact that she had never seen this chamber before, telling Sunset that this had to be the place that Valerica had come to hide the Elder Scroll, but there was no sign of the artifact anywhere.
That was before Cicero, in another moment of inspiration, moved to the bookshelves and pulled out a small journal, to which he handed it to Serana. The vampire immediately read the book, to which she discovered that they required three ingredients and her mother's blood to activate the 'portal' that rested before them. As she read off the ingredients they needed Cicero moved around the room, collecting the items that were apparently hidden in plain sight before returning to the group. Serana thanked him for finding the ingredients, but made no move to use them, saying that they still needed her mother's blood to activate the portal. Sunset sighed and told her to use her own blood, as she carried some of her mother's blood inside of her, to which Serana said it would have to do and approached the pedestal above the portal.
Sunset and her friends gathered around her as she placed the ingredients in the portal and, after a moment of hesitation, added her blood, before the entire room began to shake. They then watched as the stone circle in the floor began to crack and break, pieces lifting into the air and circling around until they created a staircase, leading right into an portal that had an unnatural purple glow... one that Sunset suspected that lead to another plane of existence. Serana exclaimed that she couldn't believe that her mother created a portal to the 'Soul Cairn', naming the realm that Sunset knew that they were going to have to enter to find Valerica and her scroll.
"One other thing, the Soul Cairn is a place for the dead," Serana told them, looking right at Sunset as she spoke, "that means that you either have to be a vampire, as we aren't considered to be alive, or become soul trapped as payment for passing through the portal."
"Only three of us will be heading inside," Sunset declared, causing everyone to look at her for a moment, "Its clear that the Dragonborn is involved with this prophecy, so I'm going to have to head inside with both Serana and Fiona, while the rest of you stay here."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Bjorn asked, voicing the concern that he was sure the other were feeling.
"We've got no choice," Sunset replied, sighing for a moment, "I'm sure that someone's watching the Soul Cairn, so having a large group wander through the area is sure to gain the attention of whoever that person is. We'll slip into the Soul Cairn, find Valerica, recruit her and get her Elder Scroll, and then the four of us will return, where we can return to Fellglow Keep and figure out where Auriel's Bow is located."
Even as she said it she had to wonder what Tirek and Revan were doing, knowing that Nocturnal taking her Key away had weakened some of her allies. She needed to find her enemy fast, before he succeeded in shattering another Hold and breaking the barrier that existed between Nirn and Oblivion. Though she had the terrible feeling that his absorption of so many mages had made it possible for him to hide himself, meaning that he was either at seventy-five percent power or, and she dreaded this one, above that number.
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Tirek continued to grin as he felt his horns grow once more, just as he finished draining the power from the Prince of Madness, where he threw the strangely dressed man into the cell with the other two Princes. He was impressed by the Madgod, as when he absorbed the power of Azura and Meridia they had been weakened to the point of exhaustion, but this Prince was still aware of what was happening around him. He chuckled to himself and turned back to the stairs, where he would approach the chest once more and begin the process on another Prince of Oblivion.
"You okay Sheogorath?" Azura asked, helping the Madgod onto his feet while Meridia helped her do so, something they might not have done before today.
"Oh course not!" the Madgod exclaimed, glaring at the bars of their cell with hate in his eyes, "I won't be able to skip rope with his entrails... or being flayed alive for that matter. A shame really, I was looking forward to doing some... crazy things... to our enemy."
"Strange, isn't it Azura?" Meridia commented, staring at the Madgod for a moment, "He had all his power ripped from his body, just like the two of us, and yet he's still mad. One would have thought that he might have become more sane, but that doesn't seem to be the case."
"Sane?! Ha, good one." Sheogorath laughed, slapping his knee for a moment, as if the thought was funny, "I forbade sanity in the Shivering Isles... something that was inspired by Emperor Pelagius III. Did I tell you what he did on his deahtbed yet? He forbade... death! Yes, that's right. Death! Outlawed!"
"Oh Akatosh save us," Azura moaned, already not liking the fact that they were sharing a cell with the Madgod.
Tirek moaned as well as he listened to the Madgod drone on, walking up to where the Wabbajack was still floating and snatched it out of the air, where he tossed it into a pile near the door. Once an artifact had been used to summon its respective Prince he had no further use for it, but he kept it out of the Prince's hands in case there was something he didn't know about. He turned to the chest and repeated the summoning spell he had used before, to which a large mace with a massive head appeared before him seconds later. He then directed his magic into Oblivion once more, summoning an orc in a loincloth to the prison, though Malacath glared at him the moment the magic was over with.
Tirek reached for his neck, but the Prince drew back and slammed his fist into his chest, knocking the wind out of Tirek and forcing him to back up just a bit. Before he had a chance to do anything Malacath lifted his hands into the air, formed a ball with his fists, and slammed the ball into Tirek's head. He then unleashed a barrage of blows on the demon, using his fists and his feet to deliver blow after blow to his enemy, before delivering a powerful uppercut to his jaw and knocking him into the wall. Malacath, seeing his artifact for a moment, snatched the mace out of the air, spun it around, and delivered a final attack to his enemy, smashing a hole in the wall and collapsing a few chunks of stone on top of the demon.
Once he was sure the demon was down for the count he turned down to face the prison cells and spotted three Princes staring at him, disbelief on two of their faces.
"I wasn't expecting someone to actually answer my call," Azura commented, before she sensed that something was wrong.
Malacath found magic forming around his arms and legs, binding his body together and causing him to fall to the floor, where his mace fell to the floor in front of the cells. He glanced towards the hole in the wall and spotted Tirek getting back up, with several cuts and bruises decorating his body as he approached the bound Prince. Tirek was clearly angry, though Malacath had no power to shatter the bindings that kept him in place. Once Tirek was close he grabbed onto the back of Malacath's head and slammed it into the floor, growling for a moment before he calmed down a bit.
"Nice try, but you were unprepared," Tirek said, feeling the power of Malacath enter his body, "and so are the rest of the Daedric Princes that are going to follow you."
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I do believe this is meant to be Serana speaking.
7040403 Whoops, that shouldn't have happened. Thanks for pointing out that error.
Wait, so Malacath knows that he's next after Sheogorath and, instead of being taken in easily, he proceeds to kick the stuffing out of Tirek until the centaur cheats...
Someone has to tell Sunset what Tirek's doing, before he destroys all of Nirn.
I wouldn't be surprised if Azura and Meridia are the sanest of the Daedric Princes compared to everyone else. I have a strong hunch there's a reason why Sheo's still insane...
So Malacath lays the smack down on Tirek and all the demon gets is some cuts and bruises? Makes me wish I could go to Skyrim, get my current character's weapons, and put a dagger in his head.
7040729 Is it because his personality would be too strange if he was anything but insane?
7040984 I'll bet that Sheo's not that affected because he's the only one of the Daedric Princes to have ascended from a mortal, from what I remember of the Shivering Isles expansion... or is it a DLC? What's the difference between an expansion and a DLC again?
7041024 It was the Shivering Isles DLC (Downloadable Content). An expansion for Skyrim would be like Bethesda making a whole new province of Tamriel available after two to three years.
But your logic on why Sheogorath is still insane does make sense.
7041045 no it doesnt, but only because the Madgod deems it so...and for for that? celebration! CHEESE for EVERYONE!
If malacath put up that much of a fight with tirek I can only imagine what mehrunes dagon will do to him!
7041255 I meant it in the sense that what he said was plausible. But it also stands to reason that Sheogorath deems himself to be insane at all times, regardless of his power level.
So, Cheese for Everyone!
7041305 Well, considering that Dagon is depicted as having four arms, one would think that his beat down would be either twice as big as Malacath's, or ten times as bad.
Maybe Dagon will do Nirn a solid and take out Tirek... or wound him enough to make him reconsider his actions.
ive gotta say, i went back to Skyrim and tried makeing a character like uve mad Sunset Shimmer here. couldnt keep Lydia alive before the Collage quests were done, and i tried. in fact, ive gone through three followers trying to follow roughly the actions of this story while keeping Sunset true to the type of mage she is, a fire mage using staves to augment her lack of skill in other elements. as of this comment, the Sunset character i made is lvl 13/14, equipped with full Elven armour, a slightly improved Orcish Mace, and various staves to act as secondary weapons. having lost the last follower looking for the Staff of Magnus, shes currently alone, and trying to finish the quest. i say trying, because this Breton is perhaps the biggest glass cannon ive ever tried to play. ive been avoiding bows of all kinds as Sunset in the story doesnt use them, being lousy at archery herself, thus, my only decent ranged attack was the Firebolt spell, which is slow and not very accurate. add to that, the idiot AI followers have, ive killed all three by sheer dumb action on their part when they moved in front of my shot. i cant even take out a nest of bandits in an already cleared area, that should have locked their levels as less than mine, but i cant even damage the last guy with Fire, Ice or Lightning...even the few Shouts i have r useless. this character cant survive without a follower to tank hits and draw attention away from her, but again, idiot AI makes all the good followers die fairly swiftly...im not sure im going to continue this one, as i might just decide to wreck it and start over...
sorry if no one really wants to read my rant, but this char is really turning into a headache and she was inspired by the story to see if that play style could actually work. answer of if it could work? sure...under the right conditions...but i cant make it work...
7043932 The thing is, the Sunset in this story has multiple followers that travel with her at a time. She first gained Bjorn when the two of them fled Helgen together. Then she got Lydia as a housecarl for becoming Thane of Whiterun. Next was Fiona, who she discovered on her quest to thwart one of Tirek's ambitions. Cicero joined up a bit later of his own volition, and Raja did the same after they visited Riften for the first time.
It's next to impossible to accurately emulate this story 100%, given that there are multiple factors that the story does that are impossible in-game (the presence of Tirek being the single biggest difference: an enemy that can cause all of Skyrim to unite against him).
7043993 i realize that, however, it was something of a thought experiment to create the character. the question of if such a character build could actually be made viable. i have done such things before, taking a character model and then thrusting them into Skyrim to see what happened as i played the way they would likely respond, the hypothesis of the character in question must be tested. it could also make playing the game more challenging in some ways by setting limits on what ultimately would occur. actually, of my hypotheticals, i believe Fluttershy is actually the closest to defeating Alduin...interestingly enough, and as a Bosmer archer as well...that was a very tricky thing, given that she excels at long range, but is weak in melee...very weak in fact,