21: Sigil Stone
My dreams were surprisingly peaceful. I esd wandering through beautiful plains of lush grass, the wind slapping gently against my face. Suddenly I was at the gates of the Imperial City. They opened before me and I walked through into the famed Talos Plaza. The large dragon statue moved to face me, stretching and flapping its wings sleepily. It smiled down upon me, and I felt a glorious rush of cool run through my veins. The statue reared up and blasted fire upon me, but I was unfazed by it. Seemingly satisfied, the statue returned to its former position, and I was suddenly back in the golden fields.
When I awoke, the same coolness was still about me, yet now the fields of grain were the ashen slopes and ruins of Oblivion. I breathed deep, enjoying the feeling of healed ribs and lungs. I pulled myself to my feet and looked around for any signs of the Dark One. Nothing was around me except for ash, lava, and the huge spire. I did find my pack and my axe nearby, and as I strapped them on I realized that the heat really wasn’t effecting me at all anymore. I looked at my skin very closely and was able to distinguish a very slight shimmer to it. The effects of a resist fire spell, obviously. I did not know how long it would last, so I opened the huge doors and entered the immense spire.
The column of flame was still burning its way up to the ceiling, and everything else was the same. I did notice a rather large pool of coagulated blood near the corpse of a half-melted Dremora, and shuddered when I realized that it was my own. There was nothing else to see down there, so I went to the door that was hidden rather well at the side of the room. It had no discernable way to open it, so I simply laid my hand on it and gave it a push. Whether the push was necessary or not I don’t know, but the door started sliding open. I found myself in a corridor with a very high ceiling that turned into a very cramped stairway. This led me to another high room similar to the first corridor. I was wary, and when a scamp jumped out at me from the shadows I was ready. A swing from my axe connected with the Scamp’s face, stunning it long enough for me to reach in and freeze its heart (or whatever organs Scamps have).
A blast of fire whizzed by me as the scamp fell to the floor. I spun and launched a fireball back at my attacker. My blast missed as well, but it illuminated the face of another Dremora, this one clad in a dark robe. It was obviously more magic-oriented than the first I had met, and it summoned a scamp out of thin air. I used the scamp as cover from the Dremora’s fireballs and charged at them both. The Dremora accidentally fried its own Scamp with a fireball, and I pushed through the dissipating form to meet the Dremora head on. It defended itself, but a few cuts from my axe and blasts of frost ended its unholy life. I searched through its robe and found several useful health potions, as well as a few scrolls.
I was feeling much stronger than before. The resist fire spell was doing wonders to keep me protected from the heat, and my magical reserves were hardly dented by the battle I had just won. Things were looking good, and I proceeded up through the tower. Winding passages brought me back into the central chamber of the spire, but I was on a higher level up. The ceiling was still out of sight, but the bottom level was a fair way down as well. I continued up in this fashion for some time, meeting the occasional scamp and dispatching them to the Void. I also found a number of dead Daedra and charred remains. Obviously someone was making their way up the tower ahead of me. I quickened my pace and hoped to catch up to them.
The corpses were mostly fresh, and finally I came to a door that couldn’t have been opened by the person ahead of me. I searched the rest of the level for them, but eventually had to go out a door that took me outside the spire. A long bridge extended from the main spire to one of the smaller towers, and I practically ran along it. I opened the door into the smaller tower and heard the sounds of battle coming from above me. I ran up a twisting ramp until I reached the top. What I saw there was almost beyond words.
The Dark One was swinging a longsword of Daedric construction and practically dancing amongst a crowd of no less than ten Dremora! He dodged and weaved through the Daedra, cutting at them and blasting them with the occasional spell. I didn’t want to intervene, as the Dremora looked extremely powerful and incredibly angry. I simply watched in awe as the Dark One reduced them to ash and bloody corpses. The floor was soon littered with corpses, and the Dark One didn’t seem to have received a single scratch! He sheathed his longsword and started digging through the corpses. I slowly emerged from the shadows and announced myself.
“Its me... Will. That was… amazing!” I stood a fair distance from him and gaped.
“Thank you, I am simply glad they weren’t all from Mehrunes Dagon’s personal guard. Now, if you would please help me find the key.” He hadn’t even looked up at me, and simply continued searching the corpses. I bent down and searched through the corpses, although I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for.
“Ah! Here we go.” He held up a small red crystal and stood up. I assumed he had found the key he was looking for, and stood up as well.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“Well, we need to shut this gate now don’t we? I am sorry I left you lying in the ash at the base of the spire, but if we do not hurry then many more will die.”
“So we continue up the tower?”
“Yes, we must reach the top and pull the sigil stone from its pedestal. Then we will return to Kvatch. Now come, we have a fair way to go yet.”
I followed him out of the tower and back across the bridge to the main Spire. He inserted the crystal in a small hole in the locked door, and the door slid open. He said that there shouldn’t be too much danger ahead, and allowed me to lead.
When we encountered a Dremora patrolling the corridors, the Dark One refused to help me unless I truly needed it. As I fought the Dremora he made some helpful comments about my spells and fighting, and I took them all to heart. They turned out to be extremely useful tips, and I improved greatly simply from listening to him. We worked our way up to the very top of the tower, and found ourselves in a very different room.
The floor of the room was mostly the usual metallic stone, but there was also a large section of the floor that was made out of a reddish crystal. The pillar of flames came out of a gap in it, and though it continued upwards, I could see where it stopped. The flames entered the bottom of a large, circular pedestal and stopped. I immediately knew that the sigil stone was in that pedestal, and started to climb the stairs towards it. The stairs themselves were huge spikes jutting out from the wall, and they led to a second floor that was overhung by what appeared to be a huge canopy made of meat! I gagged at the smell, and the Dark One took the lead at this point. We circled around to where the canopy met the floor and proceeded up it. The Dark One blasted a Dremora and we continued. The meat squelched under my feet, and I had an overwhelming urge to vomit. I held it in however, and we finally came to the pedestal.
It was chained to the walls and ceiling and hovered in the pillar of flame. The circular base had four spikes that held the sigil stone in place. The Dark One walked up to it and stopped, then turned around and looked at me.
“You must take it. Remove the sigil stone, but keep it close.”
I walked up to the stone and looked at it. It was surrounded in flames and pulsated slowly. I reached out to touch it ad found that it was not hot at all, but when my fingers hit the stone, it started vibrating and the pedestal began swinging chaotically. I jumped slightly, but grabbed the stone and wrenched it from the pedestal. The pillar of flames shot up towards the ceiling, filling the room with fire, and as I began to panic the Dark One simply smiled and grabbed my shoulder. Things started shifting in some unusual way, time and space were altered, and I found myself flung back onto the ground in front of Kvatch.
I turned and saw the Gate collapse in on itself, breaking the supports and closing violently. I let out a sigh of relief and heard a cheer go up from the guards at the barricade. They all rushed up to me and began thanking me profusely, I simply smiled and said it was really not my doing, that the Dark One had done it all. But when I looked around for him, he had vanished…
When I awoke, the same coolness was still about me, yet now the fields of grain were the ashen slopes and ruins of Oblivion. I breathed deep, enjoying the feeling of healed ribs and lungs. I pulled myself to my feet and looked around for any signs of the Dark One. Nothing was around me except for ash, lava, and the huge spire. I did find my pack and my axe nearby, and as I strapped them on I realized that the heat really wasn’t effecting me at all anymore. I looked at my skin very closely and was able to distinguish a very slight shimmer to it. The effects of a resist fire spell, obviously. I did not know how long it would last, so I opened the huge doors and entered the immense spire.
The column of flame was still burning its way up to the ceiling, and everything else was the same. I did notice a rather large pool of coagulated blood near the corpse of a half-melted Dremora, and shuddered when I realized that it was my own. There was nothing else to see down there, so I went to the door that was hidden rather well at the side of the room. It had no discernable way to open it, so I simply laid my hand on it and gave it a push. Whether the push was necessary or not I don’t know, but the door started sliding open. I found myself in a corridor with a very high ceiling that turned into a very cramped stairway. This led me to another high room similar to the first corridor. I was wary, and when a scamp jumped out at me from the shadows I was ready. A swing from my axe connected with the Scamp’s face, stunning it long enough for me to reach in and freeze its heart (or whatever organs Scamps have).
A blast of fire whizzed by me as the scamp fell to the floor. I spun and launched a fireball back at my attacker. My blast missed as well, but it illuminated the face of another Dremora, this one clad in a dark robe. It was obviously more magic-oriented than the first I had met, and it summoned a scamp out of thin air. I used the scamp as cover from the Dremora’s fireballs and charged at them both. The Dremora accidentally fried its own Scamp with a fireball, and I pushed through the dissipating form to meet the Dremora head on. It defended itself, but a few cuts from my axe and blasts of frost ended its unholy life. I searched through its robe and found several useful health potions, as well as a few scrolls.
I was feeling much stronger than before. The resist fire spell was doing wonders to keep me protected from the heat, and my magical reserves were hardly dented by the battle I had just won. Things were looking good, and I proceeded up through the tower. Winding passages brought me back into the central chamber of the spire, but I was on a higher level up. The ceiling was still out of sight, but the bottom level was a fair way down as well. I continued up in this fashion for some time, meeting the occasional scamp and dispatching them to the Void. I also found a number of dead Daedra and charred remains. Obviously someone was making their way up the tower ahead of me. I quickened my pace and hoped to catch up to them.
The corpses were mostly fresh, and finally I came to a door that couldn’t have been opened by the person ahead of me. I searched the rest of the level for them, but eventually had to go out a door that took me outside the spire. A long bridge extended from the main spire to one of the smaller towers, and I practically ran along it. I opened the door into the smaller tower and heard the sounds of battle coming from above me. I ran up a twisting ramp until I reached the top. What I saw there was almost beyond words.
The Dark One was swinging a longsword of Daedric construction and practically dancing amongst a crowd of no less than ten Dremora! He dodged and weaved through the Daedra, cutting at them and blasting them with the occasional spell. I didn’t want to intervene, as the Dremora looked extremely powerful and incredibly angry. I simply watched in awe as the Dark One reduced them to ash and bloody corpses. The floor was soon littered with corpses, and the Dark One didn’t seem to have received a single scratch! He sheathed his longsword and started digging through the corpses. I slowly emerged from the shadows and announced myself.
“Its me... Will. That was… amazing!” I stood a fair distance from him and gaped.
“Thank you, I am simply glad they weren’t all from Mehrunes Dagon’s personal guard. Now, if you would please help me find the key.” He hadn’t even looked up at me, and simply continued searching the corpses. I bent down and searched through the corpses, although I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for.
“Ah! Here we go.” He held up a small red crystal and stood up. I assumed he had found the key he was looking for, and stood up as well.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“Well, we need to shut this gate now don’t we? I am sorry I left you lying in the ash at the base of the spire, but if we do not hurry then many more will die.”
“So we continue up the tower?”
“Yes, we must reach the top and pull the sigil stone from its pedestal. Then we will return to Kvatch. Now come, we have a fair way to go yet.”
I followed him out of the tower and back across the bridge to the main Spire. He inserted the crystal in a small hole in the locked door, and the door slid open. He said that there shouldn’t be too much danger ahead, and allowed me to lead.
When we encountered a Dremora patrolling the corridors, the Dark One refused to help me unless I truly needed it. As I fought the Dremora he made some helpful comments about my spells and fighting, and I took them all to heart. They turned out to be extremely useful tips, and I improved greatly simply from listening to him. We worked our way up to the very top of the tower, and found ourselves in a very different room.
The floor of the room was mostly the usual metallic stone, but there was also a large section of the floor that was made out of a reddish crystal. The pillar of flames came out of a gap in it, and though it continued upwards, I could see where it stopped. The flames entered the bottom of a large, circular pedestal and stopped. I immediately knew that the sigil stone was in that pedestal, and started to climb the stairs towards it. The stairs themselves were huge spikes jutting out from the wall, and they led to a second floor that was overhung by what appeared to be a huge canopy made of meat! I gagged at the smell, and the Dark One took the lead at this point. We circled around to where the canopy met the floor and proceeded up it. The Dark One blasted a Dremora and we continued. The meat squelched under my feet, and I had an overwhelming urge to vomit. I held it in however, and we finally came to the pedestal.
It was chained to the walls and ceiling and hovered in the pillar of flame. The circular base had four spikes that held the sigil stone in place. The Dark One walked up to it and stopped, then turned around and looked at me.
“You must take it. Remove the sigil stone, but keep it close.”
I walked up to the stone and looked at it. It was surrounded in flames and pulsated slowly. I reached out to touch it ad found that it was not hot at all, but when my fingers hit the stone, it started vibrating and the pedestal began swinging chaotically. I jumped slightly, but grabbed the stone and wrenched it from the pedestal. The pillar of flames shot up towards the ceiling, filling the room with fire, and as I began to panic the Dark One simply smiled and grabbed my shoulder. Things started shifting in some unusual way, time and space were altered, and I found myself flung back onto the ground in front of Kvatch.
I turned and saw the Gate collapse in on itself, breaking the supports and closing violently. I let out a sigh of relief and heard a cheer go up from the guards at the barricade. They all rushed up to me and began thanking me profusely, I simply smiled and said it was really not my doing, that the Dark One had done it all. But when I looked around for him, he had vanished…
posted by Mindstroller at 1:40 PM
2 Comments:
7h3 D4rk 0n3 pwns 7h3 n00bs.
-N00200r00
He uses hacks though.
Heh. Will steals the limelight.
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