They made me WHAT?

Went back to the college. Slept. Bluh.


The next morning, I go into the main hall to find the archmage and report on what I found out, and except for the entryway it's full of swirling magic. The archmage and the college master, Mirabelle, are there. Apparently Ancano, the slimy bastard, is using the Eye. The three of us manage to break through the barrier, but Ancano does... something, and the next thing I know is Mirabelle is saying the archmage was blasted clear by... whatever the bastard did.

Head outside to check. Archmage found! Shit. He's surrounded by other teachers... apparently he didn't make it. Apparently the only chance we have is to find the staff. I mention it's in Labyrinthian, and Mirabelle seems rather surprised. She has something the archmage gave to her, he said she'd 'know what to do when the time was right'.

She gave bits to me, wishes well. Yay me.

Journy is a bit of a lengthy one. When I get to the place, I find that one of the things is to even open the front door. Apparently the archmage was here before, with others. There are still... spirits? Imprints? I dunno. But I can see ghostly images and hear them speaking. Lots of undead here. Undead dragon! Ack!

There's some strange voice coming from the deeps... it keeps draining my magicka whenever I hear it. It started in a language like the dragon one, the one my special shouts work in, but then it starts talking about stuff I don't understand. After a long way down, I finally find it. It's some kind of undead... thing, with the staff. Powerful. Have to hide and shoot spells at it a lot. Eventually I get it, though it's close. I hurt all over from the lightning spells it shot at me, but I have the staff. Looks like there might be a fast way out though.

What the hell is a high elf doing here? He says something about Ancano wanting the staff kept safe and me dead. Zap him with the staff. Apparently, once it drains someone of magic, it starts draining their life force. Neat.

THAT'S where I've seen that uniform before! Fucking Thalmor. Arrogant elven bastards, all of them. Ancano must be one of their agents. Have to get back to the college, quickly.


----


By Alkosh... the whole college is surrounded by magic. Manage to find Tolfdir outside... apparently Mirabelle didn't make it. This is pissing me off. Use the staff to break the barrier. Ancano has apparently gone psychotic with all the power. He does SOMETHING to the Eye that makes him impossible to hit, but if I drain off enough magic from the Eye with the staff, it stops and he goes down easy with a few spells.

One of the Psijic Order guys mysteriously appears, and they say that now that things are taken care of, they're going to hide the Eye away where it won't be abused. Said... I should lead the college, as the vanish? Tolfdir agrees?

... did they just call me archmage?

Surrounded by feisty mages, and not the fun kind of feisty

Decent night. At least this college has comfy beds, though a room with a DOOR wouldn't hurt. Mmm, venison stew. NOM.

Head out to see what's going on, and mention the books to Tolfdir. He seems somewhat distracted by the big orb that was moved to the main hall though. Called it the 'Eye of Magnus'. Where do they get these names...

While Tolfdir was talking, this super arrogant elf guy, Ancano, came looking for me, spazzing out and ordering me to follow him, something about some Psijic Order monk wanting to talk to me. Some of these mages are so high strung.

When I started talking to the monk, he did some sort of time freeze trick, so only I could hear him. He talked mostly about the Eye of Magnus, saying the world was not ready for such power, and I should seek out the Augur of Dunlain to assist me, whatever that was. Ancano was rather suspicious when the monk left after that, since he and the archmage didn't even realize the conversation had happened. He makes me rather suspicious, and that outfit he wears is really familiar for some reason...

I decided to talk to Tolfdir about the Augur, he seemed fairly familiar with the subject. Said he/it was in the Midden, under the college. Went down there... cold! The Augur is just this floating talking ball of sparkles though...

Apparently this isn't the first time people have sought the Eye 'to their ruin', the Augur said. At this point, apparently, I can only hope to contain the aftermath of what happens, and that I should find the Staff of Magnus, since it's the only way you can, and I quote "Use the eye without being blinded", or something. Wierd.

After finding my way back up, I talked to various people until I found someone who had a lead on the staff. More stupid ruins. And a dragon in the college courtyard! Ass.

Another dragon on the way to the ruin! Gods this is tiring.

Ruin full of mechanical spiders and wierd things. Great. Finally get all the way in, there's some mage who's lucky I looted his buddies corpse and took that focusing crystal. There's some great big machine here that focuses starlight, apparently? They want to use it for something, with this crystal, and in exchange he'll supposeably help me.

Get the crystal in the machine, and I have to either heat it or cool it to get it going properly. Once it's going the way I want it to, there's buttons that shift big mirrors around on the ceiling until they're in the right place, then it projects a map of Skyrim on the wall. Mage guy starts ranting about sabotage or something. Gods I hope I don't end up this high strung from learning more magic. He says it should be showing dots for places with strong magic, but two spots are making too much interferance. One is the college, which must be the stupid Eye, and the other is some other thrice-damned ruin that probably has the staff. Leaving annoying mage to his ranting. Going to find somewhere to sleep, soon, I hope. It's cold in here.

College, a cold comfort

Thank the gods I'm off that mountain. It was FREEZING up there. Then again, all of Skyrim is pretty cold.

Instead of heading straight off to find this horn, I decided to go to a place called Winterhold. I'd heard mention of a college of mages there, and maybe I can get a better grasp on magic, and some more spells. This elf-lady, Faralda, wouldn't let me in until I could cast a spell for her. Suppose that's a not a bad entry test. Went in, talked to other people, apparently I get my own room. Not bad. Listened to a lecture, and then we're all supposed to go to this old Nord ruin they're excavating. Bleh.

Get out to the town, just about to leave, and a dragon lands! Gah! Stupid dragons. Manage to kill it eventually, and head off to these ruins. Thankfully not far. Not much different from the barrows I've been in. Head deeper, and guy asks me to find some small magic artifacts nearby. Go looking, and take this one amulet off a wall, and suddenly I'm trapped! Big spike barriers block off the way back. Tolfdir, the mage who was giving the lecture, and who apparently looks after all the new mages, found me, and eventually we figured out that when I put the amulet I took on, it had some kind of reaction with the wall it was on. Knocked down the wall with a spell, and the bars opened, but there was a passage behind the wall. We went deeper, killed some undead. Found this huge orb in some kind of magicka field. Wierd. Tolfdir asked me to go back to the college and report to the archmage. Archmage said I should go to the library (they have some other fancy name for it, strange people), and ask if there are any books on the ruins.

Great. All the books were stolen by some asshole apprentice who wanted to impress this circle of summoners who left the college. Stupid keep is way over by Whiterun. Full of mages and freaky fire beasties. Had to kill them all. Took forever. Don't know why I let the moron who stole the books out of his cell. Should have let him rot for making me go all this way to this dank keep full of crazy mages. Tired. Wish I had someone to share bed with. Meh. Maybe once I have a place of my own, not just a room in a mage college.

Dragons. Why is it always dragons?

Another day. Figure I should head north to the larger city up there, Whiterun. Maybe I can learn more about this FUS word. FUS! It's kinda fun to say.

FUS!


Anyway... found the road north, but stumbled into ANOTHER cave full of bandits. How many bandits does this place have? Anyways, killed them all, took their stuff. There was a nice cooking fire, made some delicious stew. Mm. Stew. Found Whiterun. They almost didn't let me in, but I convinced them I was there to report about the dragon attack, which is technically true. So I went to find the Jarl (I guess it's what they call lords or whatever up here) and tell him what I knew. It wasn't much, but he appriciated it. He's kinda hot...


Ahem.

So, he took me to talk to his mage about the dragon, apparently the guy was studying them or something. He asked me to find something called a dragonstone, which I already had gotten from that barrow I learned FUS in. Apparently the rock WAS good for something.

After that, I was thinking about bedding down for the night, except a guard came running in with a report that the damn dragon was over by the towns western watchtower. Ass. Stupid dragon. The Jarl asked me to help, since sadly I had the most practical experiance with them... despite that experiance being about five minutes of running away.

So, the guards and I went out to the watchtower... at first, all we saw was a beat up watchtower, and some fire around it, then sudden DRAGON!

Note to self: Standing in front of the dragons mouth is not a good thing. Singed fur is not good, and OH GOD TEETH!

Eventually, we managed to kill it. Amazingly, none of us died. Went over to investigate... wait, why is it glowing? Why is there freaky energy coming off it towards me?!


Woah... felt like I blacked out for just a second, but still standing. All that's left is dragon bones, some guy is babbling about me being something called Dragonborn, and my head hurts... there's something different about the wierd word I learned...


FUS!


Oookay, apparently I can now shout it and it projects this wave of force... hence fus meaning force I suppose. Right when I was getting back to the town gates, there was this sound like a huge thunder noise, and this booming voice... don't understand what that means. Maybe the Jarl knows?

Got back to the Jarl. Still cute.

He's saying something about me being Dragonborn too... and apparently that noise was something called Greybeards summoning me... apparently they study something called the way of the voice, which has to do with FUS and it's language. And he's naming me Thane? And giving me his axe? (Too bad that's not a euphemism, I certainly wouldn't protest.) And I have... a housecarl? Fighter servant? This is just too much...


---


Damn, yesterday wasn't a dream. I was almost hoping. Apparently these Greybeards live somewhere called High Hrothgar? Waaay far away. Going to have to hire a cart.

Bluh... can't sleep in bouncy cart. Finally got to place called Riften, closest place cart would go. Guards tried to shakedown for me to get into the damn town. Does not bode well.

Boarding house? Damn, for local workers. Probably for the best anyways, the owners niece is a total bitch. Tried to get me to help her shame her aunt for worshipping Dibella and sleeping with three men in the last month. Would have given her lighting to the face if I thought I could get away with it. Bitch. Found another inn though.

Next morning, left town. Heading along the road east, I walk by these old keep remains, and MORE FUCKING BANDITS. Kill them all, AGAIN. Lydia is pretty good in a scrap.

Found more barrows on the way there. Learned more funny words. Don't do anything if I shout them, though. One of the barrows was pretty entertaining. This dark elf woman's diggers apparently ran off from the couple of undead. Helped her get into the inner chamber, and she ran in shouting about how the treasure was all hers. Set of a trap, went squish. Moron.

Phew... at the foot of the mountain. Small town here. Yay, an inn! Apparently people do some kind of pilgramage to High Hrothgar. Huh. Sleep.


Morning. Long day ahead of me. I guess them calling this climb the seven thousand stairs isn't a metaphor. Brrr. Cold up here. Ack! Troll! Kill!

That's a gloomy looking castle. So these are the Greybeards, huh? Shouted FUS at them since the wanted to 'taste my voice'. Then they taught me another word that goes with FUS. Apparently FUS is force, but with some other words it becomes unrelenting force. Apparently these 'shouts' are made up of three words. The second one is RO, which means balance. They also taught me WULD, whirlwind, which lets me zip forward super fast! This is actually pretty cool. They want to test me? Find some horn of their founder. Huh.

Another day, another why are all these people trying to murder me?

So, morning. Sadly, the only real fire down here is a forge, so my food options are a bit limited. Just some baked potatoes I found and some wine. Maybe soon I can get some cooked meat...

Now that I've looted this mine for all it's worth, time to head out. I strike out across a river, and find this little hut with no one there, so I look around. Seems inhabited, though. After looking around a bit, I find a letter laying there... oh crap, a WITCH lives here! And she's outside! And she's throwing spells at me! Thankfully, before she can really hit me with anything, I manage to fry her with lightning. Phew.

Well, now there's all this stuff here... may as well take it. Ooh, and there's an alchemy lab hidden in the basement. Have to remember that. So, after taking everthing, I head downriver, and eventually find this little village, where I'm able to dump a lot of this random stuff I picked up, get a few supplies. Not much worth staying here for. But I saw this odd place on the mountainside nearby...

Hey, a tower on the way up. Hey, people! Maybe they know something... oh dammit, more bandits?! Thank everything for fire spells... and at least there's only a few of them. Nothing else useful here, continue on up the mountain...

That's an interesting structure... hey, more bandits! FWOOSH. No more bandits. But they said something about a Dark Elf inside...? I should go explore anyways.




Place is huge. Found the Dark Elf, though. Also, I hate spiders. Especially big ones. Also, the elf was an asshole. Said he'd give me this golden claw if I freed him from the spiderwebs, but instead he just ran off. Unfortunately for him, right into some undead, who took care of him quickly. Thankfully, fire seems to work on them just as well as anyone else. Several hallways, chambers, traps, undead, and a quite beautiful natural cave later, I found a strange door, with three turnable wheels on it, and instead of a normal keyhole, like the golden claw talons fit right in it. Would have spent ages working out how to get in if the claw wasn't engraved with the right symbols, in order even. Door open... looks like some kind of huge tomb. A few shiny things... wait, is that wall GLOWING? Woah... vision gets funny when I get close. And then it's like the glowing symbols jumped into my brain...  force. Unrelenting force. FUS.


I wonder what this all means...?

Wanderings Begin

My name is Nikolai, I'm a Khajiit, and I used to live and work on a farm. Oh please, don't give me that look. I know it's a storytelling cliche, but it got that way cause sometimes it's true, so shut up.

Now, farm work is steady work, always things to do, but it never interested me. I always wanted to see the world, learn things, EXPLORE. So, one day, I finally left. I'd heard about strange things happening in a place called Skyrim, so I decided to go there, see what I could find.

My optimism lasted about until I tried to cross the border, when I was promptly arrested. STILL not sure why. They took me, and some other people I'd never met before, to this town called... Helgen? Wierd language here. Anyways, I figured maybe once we got to a town, I'd be able to explain to these people that I didn't do anything, I'd never even been here before, and I'd be able to go free once they figured that out.

Instead, they tried to execute me. One guy seemed kind of apolegetic about it, and I think if he'd been in charge I would have been let go, but I guess there was some kind of rebellion, or something, and they weren't taking any chances. I had pretty much given up hope, was already down at the chopping block, when suddenly an ACTUAL DRAGON landed on a tower, and there was some kind of... wave of force. Oh, and then fire. In the sudden confusion, I managed to follow one of the other guys who was about to get killed, and ran around, avoiding the dragon. I never thought dragons were even REAL, much less that I'd ever be running for my life from one. We eventually managed to escape through some kind of cave system under the town, and he told me to head for a town called Riverwood, where his sister would be able to help hide us from these Imperials.

On the way there, I found this mine, and the guy outside tried to murder me. Apparently, it was full of bandits. So I roasted them all with magic. They had some shiny stuff, and food! Cheese, and tomatoes! Maybe I can get some meat and make something tasty.... I found some bedrolls, and decided that I may as well get some rest, I can get to the town tomorrow. Long day....

Though, I have to admit, some of these Nord men are... rather attractive, in a rather warrior type of way...