Skyrim: The Faces of Death

by Blackdrag-rose

Vampire: Dimhollow Crypt

With the additions of Tolan and Sharva, and the farmer seemed to be inside the fort right now, Za'kera, Amaryllis, and Lydia headed back to the opening that brought them here in the first place, as they had left their carriage on the other side of it and hopefully no one made off with it while they were speaking to Isran, though given Sharva's presence it was possible that she had killed anyone bothering their ride before she wandered into this place. Amaryllis was curious as to what they might find in Dimhollow Crypt, since Isran didn't seem to care about the information that Tolan had, and she could see that her friend was thinking the same thing, that they were going to have to ask the Vigilant about what he knew while they traveled to their destination, even though no one had any idea where Dimhollow Crypt rested. The other thing she thought about was the fact that Sharva claimed to be a servant of Mehrunes Dagon, something she hadn't been lying about, making her wonder what the Prince of Destruction was up to right now, especially since his Razor was still in her possession and had been used to kill a number of enemies since she recovered it from his alter. Her best guess right now was that Dagon just wanted to be apart of the upcoming war, even though he couldn't actually appear in this world thanks to what went down in the last era, his Oblivion Crisis and the sacrifice of Martin Septim, and had tracked down one of his servants to make sure they were part of what was coming up.

Once they were outside the group found that the carriage was just fine, even if there were three dead bandits rested in the surrounding area, to which Za'kera quickly checked each one for anything of value, finding nothing but their coin pouches, though as soon as she was done searching them she and her companions climbed onto the carriage, with Lydia in front once more, before they departed from the Rift and headed for their new base.

Tolan told them what he knew about Dimhollow Crypt, that it rested along the path that would bring them to the massive statue of Mehrunes Dagon, something Amaryllis knew about thanks to her own visit to the location in question, despite the fact that they were going to have to leave the carriage behind when they reached their destination, as the path just so happened to be rather thin and would put them in danger. Other than that he really didn't have much information to tell them, as all the information on the crypt in question resided in three tomes that were written by Adalvald, three journals that contained all of his notes and thoughts as he explored the area in question, though he did know that there were a fair number of Draugr in the crypt, which made sense when Amaryllis thought about it. The only other source of information on Dimhollow would have been Adalvald himself, and, like he told Isran during their conversation, it was hard to tell if the vampires had killed him or if they had captured him to use the information in his head to their benefit, though Tolan had a faint hope that his friend had survived and was in hiding, as that would be best, but if that wasn't the case he was sure Adalvald would have taken his life to prevent the vampires from using him, both in life and in undeath. Amaryllis had to admit that the Vigilants were still confusing, to some degree, though their faith in Stendarr was admirable, despite all of the hardships that they faced while traveling the whole of Skyrim to deal with the Daedra, though it made her think about something when she glanced over to Sharva for a moment, who didn't seem to care about Tolan that much and was more interested in what the road had in store for them.

"So, if the Vigilants don't like Daedra, regardless of who they serve and what they are, doesn't that mean that you should do something with Sharva?" Lydia inquired, speaking the question that was on Amaryllis and Za'kera's minds right now, as it seemed weird for one of the Vigilants of Stendarr to travel with someone who had confessed to being a follower of one of the Daedric Princes, especially the one who brought about the Oblivion Crisis and nearly destroyed the world back in the Third Era.

"My training tells me 'yes'... my instincts tell me 'no'," Tolan replied, showing them that he was smarter than they thought at first, that while he could have lashed out at Sharva upon discovering that she was a servant of Dagon, a pawn of the Prince of Destruction, Tolan had decided to stay his hand and do nothing to the ashen Khajiit who was sitting across from where he happened to be sitting, "I have the feeling that if I were to engage her in battle, to purge her from the land and everything, it would end with her winning and me being dead on the ground... right now my desire to avenge the deaths of my friends is stronger than my desire to break Dagon's pawn."

"Just so you know, I never asked for this... my parents forced this terrible fate upon me," Sharva stated, though while she said that Amaryllis detected what had to be a wave of resentment coming from the ashen Khajiit, meaning whatever had happened in her past had scarred her for a very long time and that it was never going away, hence why she likely thought badly of her parents and even resented them for everything they had done to her, all while she glanced down at some of the runes on the back of her right hand, "but Dagon wants me to be part of this quest and here I am... one cannot refuse the desires of a Daedric Prince, least of all the Prince of Destruction."

Amaryllis nodded her head a little as she heard that, as so far she had tried to make sure the Princes weren't mad at her, hence why she had done Dagon's bidding and killed Silus to claim the Razor, even though she had likely pissed off Meridia by ignoring her quest, which Ma'jera had done, and Sheogorath didn't like her at all, even though his daughter seemed to be another story, despite the fact that she was a tad bit odd, which was appropriate for the child of madness. So it made sense to her when she thought about Sharva's situation, she couldn't go against Dagon's wishes, regardless of whether or not she actually wanted to follow his will, and Amaryllis was sure that if the ashen Khajiit even tried to go against the will of her Prince it would no doubt cause great pain to her. Of course the other thing that she thought about while they traveled back to their base, before heading to the Pale to find out where Dimhollow was located, were the runes that were all over Sharva's body, as they had to serve some sort of purpose and reacted to her in some manner, based on what she and the others had seen earlier, though for now she figured that they would have to wait until returning to their new fortress, as Ma'jera might give them some information on what was up with her. Other than that there was nothing for them to talk about as they traveled across the lands of Skyrim once more, as Za'kera focused on figuring out what was inside the cave, Lydia on the enemies that they would take out, Tolan and Sharva thinking about whatever was on their minds, and she just kept her eyes open for enemies while they made their way back to Wind and the others.

---

Upon returning to their fortress city Amaryllis discovered that Ma'jera was busy and, interestingly enough, she was more than willing to allow Wind to come with them on this quest, though she also took a moment to let her power wash over her form for a few seconds, reverting to her true form while her armor shifted a little, as Za'kera didn't have a problem with Changelings, so she decided to travel like this for a time, instead of disguising herself all the time. After that the group continued on to the Pale, where she informed Wind of what was going on, that they were hunting down some vampires to see what they were up to and if they could discover an artifact, or at least Isran seemed to think one was there and Tolan agreed based on what Adalvald had discovered before the attack on the Hall. Of course this meant traveling in the night for once, which might actually be to their benefit since Amaryllis was more at home during the night, given her job before she and Wind came to this world, and one of the roads they traveled down was the one that she had met Cicero on some time ago, before they headed to the west as Tolan helped them reach their destination. The only thing Amaryllis felt that they might run into was a mock battle, between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks, though Tolan seemed to think neither side would do such a thing in this part of Skyrim, despite what she had seen in the past, but they figured that time would tell since there was no telling what would happen in this savage land.

Eventually they broke away from the road and followed the path that Tolan told them about, one that brought them to a burning structure that happened to be the Hall of the Vigilants, which had a number of slain Vigilants, along with figures wearing black or red armor, which was different from all of the armor Amaryllis had seen so far, resting nearby, along with a few hounds that looked like they had been crafted from dead hounds.

"The path we're looking for is off to the right," Tolan said, referring to a mountain pass that happened to head right for the area that Dagon's statue was resting in, or at least it should given what Amaryllis recalled from her time flying over the Pale in the past, though he paused for a moment as he noticed something in the flames, something that caused him to pull out his warhammer for a second as the others gripped their weapons, "Whose there?"

"Someone you don't want to get into a fight with," a feminine voice replied, where they watched as the flames parted for a few seconds and a female figure stepped out, who was wearing an elegant black dress with a red pattern on the sleeves, like she was a noble of some kind and Amaryllis could see that she was an Imperial, though she had long black hair and it looked like she had blood red colored eyes, not to mention a pair of fangs in her mouth, before the lady crossed her arms for a moment as she stared at them, "and no, I didn't lay waste to this outpost... the culprits are hiding nearby, no doubt in a cave as they wait for the heat to die down."

"We're looking for them as well, and someone they might have kidnapped," Za'kera spoke up, which was the truth, even if she didn't mention what the vampires were looking for, as she could tell that the lady was a vampire, one that had to be very powerful and ancient based on the fact that she didn't seem bothered by all of the flames that were around her, and she even spotted a weapon on her belt, a wicked looking mace that screamed 'Daedric Artifact' to her, "maybe you would like to team up with us?"

"I don't need to 'team up' with mortals... but it might be fun, for a time." the lady stated, showing Amaryllis that she was, in fact, far older than most of the people that were currently standing in front of her, which made sense as she took a couple of seconds to recall that vampires could live a long time, unless something or someone killed them, while listening to what Tolan was muttering and learned that the mace was an artifact of Molag Bal, the Prince of Domination, so named the Mace of Molag Bal, "Very well, I'll travel with you for a time... I am Lynthia."

Amaryllis and Za'kera glanced at each other for a few seconds, as they could tell that there was more that could be gained from the vampire, she certainly wasn't telling them everything right now, before Za'kera introduced them all to her, just so she knew who was who in case she wanted to talk to someone, and once that was done they headed over to the path and headed up the side of the mountain. Sure enough Amaryllis found that the path was rather thin in some places, as in too small for a carriage to pass through safely, and that meant Tolan had been telling the truth, not that she suspected him of lying to them, though she said nothing as they walked up the path, something that would have given Lynthia time to speak and explain things to everyone, but the vampire remained silent as they walked. As it turned out the group was able to find their destination with ease, as there happened to be a lit brazier outside it and a still burning torch resting on the ground, one that seemed to be sputtering out based on what they were seeing, though given the information they had on this cave Za'kera pulled out her blades as the others did the same thing, save for Lynthia anyway. With that done Amaryllis headed inside first and remained in the shadows that happened to be in front of them, though as Za'kera and the others came in she could tell that her friend trusted her and she carefully made her way deeper into the cave, sneaking through the like a wraith, making no sound and offering no signs of her existence in case people were watching.

What she discovered was that the path she was following brought her right to a chamber that had nordic architecture, just like most of the ruins in Skyrim, before spotting several figures who happened to be wearing identical armor to what they had found on several of the corpses outside the Hall, meaning vampires no doubt, and she counted four of them and one of the death hounds. Amaryllis then found that some of them seemed to be talking about their attack on the Hall, because she heard two of them discussing how feeble the Vigilants had been, despite the fact that some of them had fallen during the assault, so this meant they had to be some of the weaker vampires since it had been an attack with greater numbers, but it also meant that whoever was behind the attack had to be deeper in this cave. After taking a moment to consider that information she then switched to her bow and readied one of her arrows, where she carefully looked at the four vampires that were scattered around the chamber and quickly picked out who seemed to be the weakest, a Nord girl who seemed to be in her early twenties, and the arrow found her heart, killing her instantly. With that done the other three and their death hound realized that they were under attack and actually came running to where she was waiting, which caused her to back off for a moment as Za'kera and the others surprised the lesser vampires, killing them and their hound in seconds, though with that done Amaryllis continued into the chamber as Wind searched their slain enemies for anything that might be useful in their quest, only to find gold coins and a few healing potions.

Amaryllis quickly found a small stone tower that had a pull lever on a wall, one that opened the iron gate that blocked the way forward, though once that was done they carefully moved forward as she noticed something interesting, Lynthia just stared at them like she was studying them, hence why she kept an eye on her in case she decided to turn on them, if there was an artifact at the end of this and it tempted her to become an enemy.

The passage brought them to a chamber that had a number of opened coffins, where they could see a vampire that was in the middle of reanimating all of the skeletons to be his personal defense force for however long the spell lasted, though as Amaryllis discovered that he was totally distracted, and hadn't heard them enter this area, Wind channeled her magic for a moment and loosed a powerful bolt of lightning at them. It was, as she informed them, the Chain Lightning spell, one that smashed into the vampire's back and scattered outward for a few seconds, smashing the skeletons to pieces before any of them realized what was going on, but as the vampire turned around Sharva rushed up to where he was standing and just lopped off his head in an instant. With that done the ashen Khajiit, appearing to be more of a warrior and less of a stealthy person, marched forward and Za'kera followed after her, where they used a lever to raise another gate that happened to be in their way and headed down a passage, one that brought them to where one of the vampires had foolishly awoken a number of Draugr, something that was followed by the vampire being cut down by some undead Nords. After that Za'kera swung her weapons at their enemies as her companions joined her, dodging attacks while hacking into the Draugr that had been buried in this place at one point in time, and this time around Lynthia fought with them, swinging her mace into the head of one undead warrior while loosing a small bolt of red energy at another, causing it to go into a rage as it swung at the walls around it, an Illusion spell no doubt, before it removed it's own head and fell to the ground.

At this point in time Amaryllis and Wind glanced at each other, as one was sure this spell was different than the others she had seen and the other knew exactly what sort of Illusion spells existed in this world, so they were sure they were dealing with another Demiprince, possibly even Molag's based on the fact that Ma'jera had tracked down her father's tome and Durum had been after the Wabbajack, but they said nothing as they moved deeper into the ruin.

After that they found a tunnel that brought them to a small waterfall that had a number of skeletons being revived by one of the other vampires, which seemed to be a favorite hobby for them based on what Amaryllis was seeing, though she just pulled out an arrow and loosed it at the vampire, taking her out and cutting off the link between her and the skeletons, as it sent the bony undead back to their slumber and their bodies broke apart. With that done they headed up to where she had found the vampire and she recovered her arrow, allowing Za'kera to swing her weapons at some death hounds that came at her, which the others helped her with as Tolan smashed one with his warhammer, before they found a few more fledglings between where they were standing and another iron gate. As Amaryllis expected the fledgling vampires had no chance of surviving against her and her companions, as they hacked, slashed, and blasted through all of their enemies in a matter of seconds before finding the lever that was connected to the gate, even though they found a vampire that was far more than the others in front of a door, one of a different design than the ones the Nords made, though he fell to a rather large spider, even if he killed it as well. Such a thing caused Lynthia to sigh for a moment, as if expecting vampires with a certain level of power to die in a more graceful manner, like in a fight with them and not to a large spider, before Za'kera moved towards the door and found that it brought them to a large chamber that seemed to be resting in the heart of the mountain the cave had been built into, one with a structure that clearly wasn't made by the Nords.

Sure enough they found a trio of vampires who were standing over the fallen body of a Vigilant, Adalvald no doubt, and it wasn't long before Lynthia dropped down into the area and struck down her enemies, seizing control of the mind of the female one with her Illusion magic, before smashing the second with the mace she carried, before she turned towards the last one, who seemed stronger than the others, and tore into his neck with her fangs, draining him of his blood like it had been a long time since she ate, or maybe she wanted to make sure he was dead.

"Not bad... but I've had better." Lynthia remarked, meaning there must have been something in his blood that she didn't like, or didn't care for, and she spoke once she was done draining him of his blood, allowing her to toss the shriveled up body to the side, though once that was done, and the group caught up with her as they surveyed the scene she had made in a matter of seconds, she turned towards the structure, "Now what do we have here?"

"Not sure, but it looks like there's a button of some kind that might be a clue," Amaryllis replied, though as they quickly walked over the bridge, which was rather elegant in her eyes, Lynthia seemed to glance at the pillar in question and took a moment to direct her new thrall to it, who walked over and pressed the button with his hand, which stabbed it with a bit of sharp metal, leading to a circle of purple flames to appear around them.

Before anyone could say anything Lynthia cut down the vampire and made sure to position him away from the middle of the structure, still somehow not getting any blood on her dress, before finding a few braziers that could be moved and just stared at them for a few seconds, causing Amaryllis and the others to move them into a certain alignment, one that caused a burst of energy to emerge from the center and even lead to the floor sinking, revealing a monolith in the center, one that opened and revealed an interesting sight: a lady who appeared to be sleeping inside the hollowed core of the structure, in a royal looking set of vampire attire, which made sense given who she had to be, before they found an Elder Scroll on her back, before she stumbled forward and woke up as she stared at them.

"Unh... where is... who sent you here?" the lady asked, her tone and movements suggesting that she had been drugged at some point in time, either willingly or unwillingly, and then buried in this place for some reason, though whatever it was seemed to be leaving her system, no doubt unraveling once someone activated the monolith after going through what all of them had seen.

"Most of us were sent by a man called Isran, though I suspect he isn't someone you know," Za'kera replied, because she felt that the lady was another vampire, something that seemed to be a recurring theme lately and would likely be the type of enemies they would be encountering for some time, and Amaryllis shared her opinion, especially since they found what appeared to be the fangs in her mouth and her eyes seemed different from a normal vampire, just like how Lynthia's eyes were different as well, "rather, I'm sure you were waiting for another vampire to show up."

"Oh, good, we don't have to address that issue if you already know what I am." the lady said, where she seemed to smile for a moment, as she realized that they were smarter than whatever she originally thought about them, while making sure her body was fine from after however long she had spent in this place, before she glanced at everyone that was in front of her and froze when she laid eyes on Lynthia.

"It seems that someone went through a lot of effort to lock you away. May I ask why?" Amaryllis asked, because she was sure that it might give them a clue as to what was going on right now and not leave them in the dark, similar to what had happened back during their quest to find the first Elder Scroll, though she said nothing about what was on the vampire's back, since it seemed like an odd thing to ask to a total stranger.

"That's... complicated. And I'm not totally sure if I can trust any of you, given that you arrived with her." the lady said, while she took a moment to glance at Lynthia for a few more seconds, meaning she must have felt something that only one of their kind could tell by looking at each other, before she focused on the rest of the group for a few seconds, likely thinking that all of them were untrustworthy, even if she sighed after that, "But if you want to know the whole story, help me get back to my family's home... it's located on an island near Solitude, and unless something happened to them they should still be there. By the way, my name's Serana."

"Of the Volkihar Clan... oh yes, I've heard of your clan, little one," Lynthia commented, taking a moment to smile as Serana glanced at her in surprise, as if expecting none of them to know which of the clans she belonged to, though given the new bits of information they were learning Amaryllis had a feeling there was something else the vampire could tell them, likely a bombshell of some sort, "my father gave your family their immortality, after you enacted the ancient ritual to become full vampires and your father sacrificed thousands of innocents to get his prize..."

Serana seemed to pale for a moment, no doubt remembering the day in question, while Amaryllis figured out what in the world was being said, that Lynthia was actually Lynthia Bal, the Demiprince daughter of Molag Bal, and that meant that the Lord of Domination was interested in whatever the vampires were doing, which only made her curious as to what the near future held for them.

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

of course Bal would stick his oar in if Dagon did...those two hate each other beyond the normal hatred between the Princes...Dagon never really got over how Bals attempt to merge Tamriel with Cold Harbour in the Second Era got a lot closer to actually working than his Oblivion Crisis in the Third...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11031386 You know, save for a few lines from Mankar Camoran, I always thought Dagon was trying to destroy Tamriel, not turn it into a realm of his own... it's also been a while since I've played Oblivion, so my memory might be wrong.

[Night_Moon60606]

11031699
he was, but he got smacked down for it faster than Bal did and he didnt get nearly as close to winning as Bal did...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11031787 Well, Molag was fortunate that Mannimarco sacrificed the Chosen Hero, the Vestige I believe they were called, to Coldharbour, where they had to break free before attempting to figure out how to stop the Prince's plans... Dagon just had the Septim line erased and figured all was well, so it was his fault he lost.

[Night_Moon60606]

11031814
u really expect him to admit to that? not Dagons style...and it wasnt DAGONS plan that wiped out the Septims, that was all the Mythic Dawn. no, the real goal was to allow the Dragon Fires to grow cold, since they were all that was keeping Dagon out of the mortal realm, and without a Septim to rekindle them, yes, that was that...the fact that the Hero of Kavatch was even tapped before the last Septim Emperor was killed was partly luck, and partly the old coots visions...

[Blackdrag-rose]

11031825 Well, I can't debate the fact about the Mythic Dawn. Regarding Dagon's involvement with the plan, it's hard to say if it was purely his plan given to Mankar, if it was purely Mankar's plan, or a mix of the two... I only mentioned his involvement due to his profane book, that's all.

[Night_Moon60606]

11031838
fair enough,