#labyrinthian

V1 - Break in

The boards yield to your punching in a matter of moments.

By the time you've lowered your fist, it's as if there was no "KEEP OUT" written at all.

V1 - Proceed.

Nothing else stands in the way of your progression. You slide effortlessly down the corridor, metal hide unmarred by the heat.

V1 - Look around

The room is empty, bar for a single pedestal.

It beckons to you.

You are starving.

V1 - "..."

I swear I'm hearing things, too. There's this rattling like a shutter in the wind.

That could be what it is, though, if the exit's not too far away.

Oh, well.

After the troll was another room with more skeletons, trolls, and that Voice again, this time saying that we would only face failure "once more".

As we kept going, the Voice seemed to realize that we weren't "Aren".

I admit, that surprised me a bit. I mean, it was obvious to me that it wasn't some ghost, like the spirits of Savos and his friends that we've seen, but I wonder why it took him that long to realize that none of us were him.

The next area was a cemetery, with tall, thin headstones poking out of the dirt at the bottom of the cavern, and coffins resting on posts stuck into the walls. There was a wispmother there, surrounded by wisps. She wasn't happy to see us, but there weren't a lot of wisps, and we were able to get rid of her before she could summon many more of them.

There was a small room past the cemetery, with a door sealed by fire and guarded by a Fire Spirit. We heard the Voice again, this time asking if Aren warned us that our own power would only strengthen him and be "our undoing".

Valdimar opened the door with an Ice Spike, and we kept going.

The next room was a smallish circular chamber, and we saw the ghosts again. There were only four of them this time.

The Argonian lady was clearly upset, and asking for just another minute to get herself together. Savos was trying to get her to keep moving, and Atmah looked panicked. She asked where "Elvali" was, and the big Nord guy said that she was dead. "Something" came out of the dark and grabbed her before he could do anything.

The Argonian lady said they never should've come here, and Atmah agreed. She said it was all her fault, and wondered if they should go back or keep going. The Nord man said he didn't think they should go back, and Savos said that would mean certain death. They had to keep going; surely they'd make it!

I wonder if he believed what he was saying.

I don't think he did.

Atmah comforted the Argonian lady and urged her onward, then they all disappeared.

Before we could say anything about it, the Voice came back for the last time and said, "Come. Face your end!"

We got our weapons, ready for a big fight, and kept going down the dark corridor.

We were met with a ghostly draugr and a ghost warhound!

I mean, that was… That was a shock! Seeing a glowing blue ghost dog that was partially skeletal come at us out of the dark was the last thing I expected!

Luckily we don't need special weapons to fight them. Septim ran forward and grappled with it, while we took care of the ghost draugr.

-/-/-/-/-/-

All this talk of ghosts has me feeling jumpy; I swear I can hear footsteps.

Anyway, we kept going, and ran into a lot more of them after that. The path led us downward, deeper into the ruin. We fought only spectral enemies, both draugr and dogs.

There was a Dragon Wall in one area, and despite the fact that the room was pitch dark, I found myself walking towards it like I could see everything in my way perfectly.

Here's the word:

This one was familiar, and I think I learned more of another Shout. It was like back when we were fighting all those hags and witches in Hag's End. Everything felt heavy, and as I stumbled back it felt like I was knee-deep in sand.

I'm glad Valdimar caught the glow in my eyes, and grabbed me before I could wander off. There was a ghostly Death Lord between me and the Wall, and he gave us some trouble.

The ghost draugr aren't harder to fight than regular ones, but their weapons are so much worse! They seem to sap energy from you in ways that regular ones don't. Getting cut by their blades and pierced by their arrows doesn't just hurt; the wounds are cold, and I can feel my magicka and my energy just… Draining away.

At least the weapons don't weigh much. They're solid enough, but they're ghostly, too, just like their wielders.

Well, we kept going, and after a while the place started to lighten up. There were more torches, and it started to feel like a regular Nord crypt.

Not exactly comforting, but at least it was… Familiar.

We saw the students' ghosts together one last time before we came in here, just outside the door.

There were only three of them. Savos, Atmah, and the Nord. They were arguing. From the sounds of it, the Argonian lady just gave up and refused to go on. Atmah said they shouldn't have left her, but Savos wanted to know what else they could've done.

I mean, he had a point.

The Nord knew what they'd find in here. He knew this was the end for them. He said he could feel it. Atmah knew they weren't going to make it, too, and the Nord said, "We all stay together. Agreed?"

They swore they would, then disappeared.

Obviously, that didn't happen.

We walked through the door and saw a huge cave, with two tiered platforms to the left, and a platform to the right. There's a waterfall that empties into a deep pool on the far wall, with a wall in front of us. There's an archway through the wall, and stairs on the other side so we can get up to the first level.

Each of the tiers on the left has a small platform jutting out, and at the end of each was the spirit of a mage, casting a spell. Their spells were directed to the right, where a Dragon Priest was floating, trapped in a round orb of magic.

The Dragon Priest had the Staff of Magnus in his hand.

We went to talk with the first mage, and were shocked when we realized that it was the ghost of Atmah! She'd gone mad or something, so when she turned from her task she attacked us. We couldn't reason with her, so we had to destroy her.

The other mage was the big Nord man, and we had to kill him, too.

With no one powering the Ward, the Dragon Priest was free, and he attacked us. It was a bit of a fight, but luckily, he doesn't know what to do against a warrior and a dog! He was too busy trying to use the Staff to drain our magicka to try and fight off Lydia and Septim.

He was also not expecting Valdimar AND Erandur to come at him with swords.

When he went down, I took his creepy mask off him. I'll have to ask Urag if he has a book about them. They're all different, and they're enchanted, so maybe they've each got different enchantments or something?

I don't want to do anything Stupid to find out, like trying them on.

He had the Staff, so I took it and handed it to Valdimar. He took it in his hands, and just sighed.

It's late, and we're all tired, so I suggested that we make camp in here for the night. It's a big cavern, there's a waterfall with a nice pond full of fresh water, and plenty of room for a fire. The others agreed, and I asked Valdimar if he and Erandur could set up camp while Lydia and I looked for any loot.

They did, and we looked around. I found two chests. One by the big door going out had some Conjuration robes in it! There was some gold and other things, too, but as soon as we're out of here and have a good bath, I'm switching out my bloody and torn Alteration set for this one.

Sure, they've been here for… Well, I have no idea how long, but the robes were nicely sealed in that chest. I don't see any sign of moth holes, dry rot or mildew on the fabric, so I think they're good. They smell a bit musty, but I wrapped them around some lavender I had in the alchemy bag, so they'll be fine by the time we get back to Windstad Manor.

The other chest had some gold and potions in it, and was tucked away behind some boulders. I'm sure I would've missed it, but I caught the glint of the hardware between the stones.

On our way back, we ran into Erandur saying some words over the ghostly remains of the dead wizards, with Valdimar by his side.

When they were done, we all walked back down to the fire, and had a very late dinner while we got ready for bed.

Even though we're all disgusting, none of us really had the energy to wash up, so we're just going to wait until we get back to -

All right, I swear on every Divine those REALLY ARE footsteps I'm hearing!

Septim's looking up, too.

If they don't stop soon, I'm waking everyone up.

-/-/-/-/-/-

Gods, I hate being right all the time.

Ancano's a Thalmor agent, he wants us dead, and he sent another Thalmor agent here to take the Staff and kill us.

Obviously, because he's Actually Stupid, his plan didn't work.

ANYWAY - We're outside now, camped out on top of one of the ruins, near the southern entrance of Labyrinthian. I think the sky will start to get light right when it's Lydia's watch, but who cares.

We need rest, dammit. This is the only thing keeping me awake right now.

So, Septim and I could tell there was someone moving around past the big door out of the chamber, so I woke everyone up.

They barely had time to nap, but they agreed that it sounded like there was someone still "alive" in here, and that they were trying to get in.

We occasionally heard rattling and banging, like someone trying to force open a door.

So, we broke camp, geared up, got our weapons out, and opened the door.

Standing on the other side was Savos' ghost.

That was… That was hard.

Valdimar… He was horrified.

I mean, I don't blame him. We all were. Savos… I mean… He LEFT them there! He was the one who bound his friends' spirits to keep the Dragon Priest contained!

He was apologizing to them, practically in tears, saying that it was the only way to keep the rest of Skyrim safe. He said he'd seal the place away, and make sure that it would never happen again.

Then he disappeared.

"How could he just leave his friends here to die?" Valdimar asked, and I'm not sure if he was angry or sad.

Erandur cleared his throat and said he knew it must've been hard, but at least Savos had a good reason.

I couldn't see into his hood - He was hiding in it like he does - but I know what Valdimar said hurt.

Valdimar realized what he said, and went to apologize, but Erandur held up his hand. He said that Valdimar was right. There are some things you have to learn the hard way, and clearly, Savos did.

Right then, the door at the top of the steps rattled.

There was a bar across it.

Septim barked, and we went up the steps, and listened.

Footsteps.

I was temped to call out, but figured that whoever was in the next room obviously knew we were in there, so Lydia lifted the bar, and I opened the door.

It led into a rather normal-looking Nord crypt, with a Thalmor agent standing there. He was surprised that we made it out alive, and said that Ancano was right; we were dangerous.

I asked what he was doing there, and he said his job was to get the Staff, and kill us. "Nothing personal," he said.

So, he'd dead. I took his armor because it does sell well, and we left through a ladder in the next room.

We found ourselves on top of a small broken archway, up and to the left of the main door area where we came in.

It was sticking out of the side of the snow, so it was easy to slide down a little ways to get to solid ground, and onto this platform. It's the first one on the left if you're coming into the place from the south side.

We were so tired, we decided to just camp out here. It's big enough for our tent, and with one way up, easy enough to keep watch and defend if any frost trolls or other animals get any funny ideas.

So, I built a HUGE fire to scare off any curious critters while the others got the tent up.

Septim's out of his armor and warming up my bedroll for me.

Thank the Divines for coffee! I'm going to get some ready for Lydia, and leave the pot and everything else out in case anyone wants to make more or maybe have some tea.

I can't wait to get some sleep.