#wolf queen

Queen Potema Septim in her youth, c.3E

Lonely Castle In The Mirror

Kagami No Kojou

Sorry if this took so long, I'm finally done!

I'm exhausted, but it's been a very, VERY long day and my head is killing me and I need to write down what happened so I don't forget when we talk with Firebeard and Styrr tomorrow.

This morning was like any other. Erandur and Lydia were both up bright and early as always, and Valdimar got up to make us all breakfast like he usually does. I'm a late sleeper, but the smell of food gets me up quickly!

We went to Solitude and sold off our goods. On a whim, I ducked into Angeline's Aromatics and bought some alchemy ingredients I didn't know much about. Erandur warned me not to make myself sick as we walked to the Palace. We both kept our eyes out as we walked past the Bard's College. Erandur hasn't told the others about getting expelled yet.

Elisif was arguing with one of her thanes when we went up to speak with Falk. He motioned us to the side, and told us that the spirit of Potema had escaped, like I thought. He couldn't say more in the court, but told us to go to Styrr, the priest of Arkay, who would explain everything.

We found Styrr at the Hall of the Dead, and he told us that some of Potema's faithful had broken through from her catacombs into the Temple of the Divines! I heard Erandur whisper, "No," and the scrape of his gauntlets on his armor as he clutched at his chest.

Styrr nodded at him, and said, "It's worse than we thought, Brother."

I didn't get a chance to study as much as I wanted to last night, so I asked Styrr to tell me about Potema.

Divines, I can hear Dru laughing now. She used to tease me when I would read anything that wasn't "something fun".

Anyway, Styrr told me that Potema was once the Queen of Solitude, and had her sights set on becoming Empress. She never got it, despite being a powerful necromancer with vampires to lead her armies of the undead. Because I interrupted her summoning, I was somehow linked to her, spiritually. I had to be the one to bring her remains to the Temple of Arkay so he could sanctify them, and keep her from coming back from the dead.

I've about had enough of this "Destiny" horseshit. Am I some sort of Divine joke?! It's like no matter what I do, I'm responsible for something bad happening! If I don't fix it, there's some ancient evil coming to take over the world, or start a war or something!

I cursed for a bit, then apologized. Styrr just laughed and said it was all right. "It must be hard being the Dragonborn."

Before I could ask him how he knew, he handed me a key to the catacombs and said that before me, Potema was the last Dragonborn. Maybe that was what made the connection between us?

I had no idea that she was a Dragonborn! I was about to say something, but Styrr grabbed his amulet of Arkay with his left hand and put the fingertips of his right to my forehead.

A light filled my vision, like when I learn a Shout. He said I could Turn the undead, now. He said I'd need it, down in the catacombs.

He was right.

We went straight for the Temple of the Divines, and were greeted by a priestess when we walked in. Erandur spoke with her and another priestess about why we were here while we looked over the shrines. Erandur rejoined us and we all got a blessing from Mara before we came down here.

The priestesses told him where the break-in was, and he led us to the back of the basement. I had to unlock the gate on the way, but we soon found a large hole, the size of a door, bashed in from the space beyond. We went in, and while it's full of cobwebs and a little run down, it looks just like the rest of the basement.

We didn't get far when we came upon a set of iron bars blocking our path, next to what I thought was a carving of Mara at first, but…

Erandur almost growled behind me as he cursed in Dunmeri.

It had once been a carving of Mara as the Mother Wolf, but it had been crudely altered into a likeness of Potema, the Wolf Queen. Valdimar grumbled something about sacrilege, when a voice suddenly echoed in the small chamber, and a blue-white light, like what we saw in Wolfskull Cave, rushed out of the carving to swirl around us. Septim started to whine and ducked behind my cloak.

It was Potema. She was glad to see me return to her, and she thanked me. She said that when I died, she would raise me to join her at her side.

Then the iron bars to our left pulled away, and we could go through.

Before we kept going, I dug in my pack and handed Lydia a scroll of Dread Zombie. Before she could say anything, I said that if I died down there, her last order was to raise me from the dead before Potema could, and kill me.

Erandur was about to protest, but I shushed him. I told them all that I don't care how powerful she is, she can't raise a pile of ash. There's no way in Oblivion I'll ever be her or anyone else's slave, dead or alive.

We went through the door, and soon came upon some draugr, along with a Vampire.

She wasn't hard to kill - I set her on fire almost immediately - but she did manage to get me with the disease. Erandur saw me go down, and when he helped me back up he was weirdly panicked. He demanded that I drink a Cure potion immediately. Even after I had, he insisted that we go back upstairs to the Temple of the Divines and get me a blessing before we kept going, but I was fine. The potion worked. It hadn't even been a minute.

I told him to calm down and just look at me. He's a priest, he can tell, and he had to agree that I really was fine.

Lydia asked what got up his armor, and he said that even though his Lady taught him patience and mercy, these blood-sucking bastards didn't deserve any of it.

We all traded looks as Erandur glowered at the dead vampire on the floor. Valdimar asked, "You hate vampires, don't you?"

"I have my reasons."

We took the hint. We can ask about that later.

As we went, it continued to not look like any catacombs I've ever been in. It looks like a normal basement. Sure, there's some cave-like portions where the stonework's fallen away and exposed the earth behind it, but for the most part it looked very basement-y.

There were only a few more vampires, but plenty of draugr. Turning them was really useful! I figured out that if I turned the weakest-looking one, Septim would usually take care of them while we handled the stronger ones.

I did get hit with Sanguinaris Vampiris again, and Erandur once more almost had a fit over it. Again, I took a potion, and I felt just fine. Still, he grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a long, hard look before he was reassured that I was going to be all right. He made me promise to go to the Temple of the Divines as soon as possible when we got out of the ruins.

After a while we found an alchemy station, and a big door. The room looked like the smaller version of the Hall of Stories, but with only one mural on each side. Defaced versions of carvings of Mara, like the one we had seen above. Erandur looked pained to see them, and I think he was distracting himself by scolding me about trying out all the ingredients I had on me.

Oh, well. I had potions to make!

We went through the big door, and then it started to look like a proper Nord crypt. Niches in the wall with skeletons and all that. There were even a few of those spinning doors that had to be stopped with levers so we could go through them.

There was a large room after a set of those spinning doors, with a Death Lord "sleeping" on a throne. I threw a Fireball at it, and then we heard a Vampire start going on about how if we were looking for Potema's sanctum, he would use our dead bodies to build their armies or whatever.

He died in seconds when Erandur threw himself at him, fire pouring from his hands.

Lydia, Valdimar and I shared A Look.

He really hates vampires.

I found a key on the dead vampire, and used it to unlock the door to Potema's Sanctum.

The next room was… Disgusting.

It was small and round, and the sunken floor was absolutely covered in dead draugr. There was also a dead vampire laying there, on the literal pile of bodies. I heard Valdimar make a little sound of disgust, and whisper "By the Nine," under his breath.

On the opposite side of that pit of horrors was a doorway covered in an iron gate, and on the right hand side of the wall were a bunch of candles and another one of those desecrated carvings of Mara made to look like Potema. I tried not to step on anyone as I walked in, but it was literally impossible to not step on a dead body.

I was partway through the room when that bluish light came back, spiraling around in a vortex, and Potema spoke once more. She taunted me, calling me a "little thing", and invited me to "serve her in death."

Septim started barking, and I saw the vampire that was practically at my feet, along with two other draugr who were behind me, start to rise from the dead. I was surrounded, so I followed Erandur's example and cast Flame Cloak, then set upon the vampire with my poisoned axe.

I drove her into the wall, trading hits from my axe with Flames from my other hand, and she went down quicker than I thought she would. I looked behind me, and saw the others standing over the dead draugr.

The gated door opened, and I turned to Lydia as the flames died out around me. I asked if she had the scroll at the ready, and she said she did.

I nodded, then took some time to loot all the bodies in the room. We came away with a fair amount of gold, actually, but I also found an Ebony sword! I offered it to Valdimar, and he gladly accepted. I had handed a glass mace off to Erandur earlier. Now, I just had to find something nice for Lydia.

She didn't have to wait too long.

Not far from that terrible little hole, we found a door, and beyond it, an oval room with a stepped floor. The two levels were ringed with standing coffins, and in the center was Potema's spirit, floating above us in a mass of swirling blue-white light. She challenged us to stand against her "inner council" and some of the coffin lids burst open to release the draugr inside.

These were stronger than most of what we'd faced before. Death lords, Scourges and Wights, mostly, able to cast Frost spells, Shout, and even summon Frost Atronachs! As we fought them, Potema radiated bolts of lightning that roved around the room, shocking whoever they hit.

Erandur threw all the fire he could at them, while Lydia boldly ran in and smashed their faces in with her warhammer. Valdimar filled them with Ice Spikes, and when he was out of magicka, went in to test out his new sword. Septim, good boy that he is, stuck to the outer edge and went after the handful of regular draugr that emerged. I was glad for that, because all of them seemed to have bows, and it was nice to not have to worry about arrows.

Most of the undead were too strong for me to turn, so I concentrated on trying to keep everyone else alive, and cast Healing spells on everyone until my magicka ran out. I was almost entirely out of magicka potions, so I pulled out a Guardian Circle scroll and promptly dropped it down into the middle of the fray. I chased after the scroll, getting between two of the nastier draugr, and cast it as soon as I had my hands on it.

The draugr scattered, and I called the others to join me in the circle. We were able to concentrate on picking them off one by one, and once they were all gone, Potema's spirit howled in rage and fled through the closed door on the far side of the room.

We took a moment to heal and regroup while I sifted through the armor and weapons.

I gave Erandur an Ebony sword, and said that now they matched! They both laughed. Lydia hummed in approval when I handed her an Ebony warhammer that I almost missed hiding behind a coffin lid. She gave it a few swings and proclaimed it, "Not bad."

We went into the next room, and saw a ghostly figure sitting on a throne at the top of a short flight of steps. It was Potema, and she attacked. We swarmed her, and it seemed like she came back several times, but we eventually managed to kill her for good.

Her skull, still wearing a circlet, was on her throne. I stuffed it in my pack, and checked out the chest that was just behind the throne. I just had to sit on her throne and take a drink before we left through the door in the back of the room.

We win, bitch.

But we were exhausted, and there were still two draugr lurking in the room past that! We fought them, and soon found our way up a passage that finally let us outside.

Onto a CLIFF!

There's just a little platform out there, and we could hardly fit! At least there was a chest there with some useful potions and gold in it, but by the Nine, we almost ended up in a pile at the bottom of the mountain!

I considered trying to pick our way down in the dark, but we were tired, it was freezing, and I had no idea which direction Solitude was in. I could see and hear water, and there was a boat, and I saw some sort of tower to the left. I think it's a lighthouse? I don't even know what time it is, but it's late, so I had us come back inside, and go back through the big chamber we fought in. There's a big brazier right outside the door, and it's plenty warm enough here to cook food and keep us comfortable while we sleep.

Speaking of, my watch is almost over. Time to kick at Lydia. We'll get back to Solitude tomorrow.

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