» Sat Jul 14, 2012 1:50 am Also on another side note, I find it funny that in my fanfic and whenever I run her as my companion she calls Lucil "Big man". But in third persion she's taller than Lucil, lol. Also he's really skinny too, lol.
Also, yes this contains spoilers if you haven't played the Dawnguard DLC. This is my Narrative of one of the quest.
-------------
Dust and cobwebs surrounded the stone walls. Even though you got the sense that this place hadn't been touches for ages, life still seemed to cling to these sheltered walls. Death hounds stalked the area and even vampires still sulked around. Though it didn't phase Lucil much, his pale silver blue eyes the only source of light in these shadows. He quickly crouched down and became one with the shadows. Serana reluctantly crouched down as well.
"I'll distract the dogs," she whispered.
Lucil only placed a hand up in the darkness, he knew she would be able to see it with eyes like hers. He began to stalk his prey and almost smirked as he realized the irony of the situation at hand. As the Death Hounds grabbed unto Serana's scent, the vampire was about to move after her. But the vampire was quickly grabbed by his grasp, hand over their mouth and he sliced their neck. His Dagger of Immolation lit the vampire up into flames and Lucil moved away from the body. The Death Hounds lay down on the ground and he still wore his smirk.
"What you smirking about?" Serana asked in her usual way.
"Vampires are creatures of the night, whom hunt prey," Lucil said, "The irony is that I am the same way."
"Except you don't feed off of people's blood," Serana said.
"There is that one exception..." Lucil paused and stared sadly at his dagger.
"Or are you? Do you have a gift of Namira?" Serana asked jokingly.
"Namira?" Lucil asked not understanding.
"One of the Deadric Princes," Serana said.
"I'm not up to date with who is who," Lucil said.
"Me and you both. Shall we continue?" Serana asked.
"Yes," Lucil said.
The air in this side passage was thick and dusty, constricting Lucil's breathing. He was use to be in very dusty places, but nothing thick like this. There was something dark and forbiding about this place. A miasma of forlorn warning wondered through the place. As they made their ways up the stairs silently to find the lever, Lucil opened a door and something swiftly pounced him. He slowly, with the creature rolled down the stairs. It was an abomination of teeth and fangs, something that had lost its sense of self. Quickly he stabbed his dagger through it's chest and it lit up in flames in the fray. It's skin singed it collasped unto Lucil in its secondary death. He quickly pushed it off of him.
"What was that?" Lucil asked.
"A feral vampire," Serana said staring sadly at the thing.
"Even...other vampires are treated...this poorly," Lucil said.
Serana seemed to frown slightly, sadness glinted in her orange, red eyes. Lucil got up from the ground and dusted himself, he walked over to the body and searched through its pockets and he found a journal fragment. He waved the paper up in whatever light did exist here, and Serana stared at it with curiosity.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I think a journal fragment," Lucil said.
"Open it up," Serana said excitedly.
Journal Fragment
"Not good enough to live in their keep stupid keep, am I? Stupid they don't realize I've moved into their undercoft and started taking control of their own death hounds, I'll get my revenge."
Serana stared at Lucil in disbelief staring at the dead abmonination of a vampire.
"It appears your father wasn't well liked," Lucil said.
"It appear that controlled our death hounds," Serana said.
"We should continue," Lucil said.
He made his way back up the stairs that he had a tumble down, and made his way into a small room there wasn't much. Some vacant and destroyed shelves, plus a table. On his left was lever to open a door. With some effort he pulled the old lever and they heard a door open. Serana pointed downstairs to their right. Lucil nodded. Serana made her way through the minature room, and he could hear her going down the stairs. She definetely was not trained in the art of stealth. As she made her way in the direction of the door, he saw her over the small little balcony he was on. He grabbed unto the stone rail and jumped down in front of her. She stared at him slightly unamused by his antics. They continued down the dusty corridors. The sound of skeletons could be heard in the distance.
"Want to play a game?" he asked.
"Am I going to like this game?" Serana asked raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe, let's see how many skeletons we can kill," he said.
"So, the answer was no," Serana said.
"So men give woman a bouquet of flowers, others give them some bonemeal," he said with a smile.
"Well let's go then," Serana said, "And you won't be bringing me any bouquets of anything I hope."
Lucil shrugged as they made their way down, they found themselves at a fork in the road. Three paths, one forward with a closed door, right path, left path. Serana stood up her knees were begining to give way trying to crouch so much.
"Take the left," she said.
"Okay," Lucil said going right.
"What are we doing?" she asked.
"Exploring,"
"I've lived here all my life," she said, "This is more like a waste of time."
He made his way towards the right path, but stopped halfway noticing the bear trap. He kind of raised an eyebrow finding it rather amusing. He disabled the bear trap and the two made their way through the thickest of webs and dust. He quickly noticed the skeever and slashed at it before it could see them. Nothing but a dead end with a skeever. How disappointing. He noted Serana's rather sarcastic look on her face.
"We done wasting timing?" she asked.
"Why are we in a hurry?" Lucil asked.
"We're not....just you led us to a dead end," she said.
"A skeever end," he joked.
She only rolled her eyes and grabbed his wrist to drag him in the right direction. Lucil's hand twitched slightly from being grabbed. She noted his hesitation and stopped.
"Is there something the manner?" she asked.
"No," he replied.
"Stand up big man," she said.
"We'll be caught," Lucil said.
"It's my time to have fun," she said.
As they made their way down through the left path, passing more and more stone until they made their way into a room filled with piles of skeletons. Two death hounds lazily sat on the piles and hadn't noticed their presence just yet. But the whiff of their scent awoke them and they got up. They were prepared for the next meal. Lucil tightened his grip on his Dagger of Immolation and prepared for a batte. Serana moved a few paces back and began to throw ice picks. And Lucil waited for the death hound to come to him. The dog bounded forth, a mess of teeth and drool. It lunged forward and he prepared his strike, as he hit the dog with his dagger in the left, the dogs sharp claws scratched across his hands. It's other claws missed him by an inch. These dogs were up for a fight, prepared for the dogs next attack it skidded across the floor and fell down dead. He stared at an ice pick in it's abdomen and he stared across the room at the other dead hound. Serana smirked.
"Having trouble big man?" she asked.
"It's fine," Lucil said, "It's a scratch."
"You should patch that up," she said.
Lucil only nodded as Serana looked for a switch to open the other door. His hand glew brightly with a warming engulfing light, and his scratch began to fade as he applied his non injured hand to the scratch. All thought Restoration was useful, it could not rescue anyone from fatal wounds. His hand twitched as he remember his mother lying on the wooden floor covered in blood. The glow of his hands reminded him of the night, a cold hand touched his non restorative hand.
"You okay?" she asked.
"Yes," Lucil said trying to keep his quiet temperate voice from cracking.
"Shall we continue," she said.
"Of course," Lucil said.
They doubled back through the fork in the road and went through the door only to be greeted by the skeletons they had heard from before. Lucil smiled and cocked his head at Serana, she gave in with a slight sigh and nodded. Chaos ensued as Serana began to cast several ice picks into every skeleton she met. These were not the usual skeletons he met at fort roads, these hardened and powerful. Taking several strikes before the flames began to react to their briddle bodies. Serana seemed to be in love with it as she drained their health, did skeletons have health? He only thought about it slightly. As the battle weaned Serana seemed to revel in victory as she summoned one of the very undeead skeletons to follow them.
"Guess I win," she said with a smile.
The path to their destination seemed to be the same path, the same stone walls, the same turns. After a while things began to mirror each other, making each twist in the path confusing as the next. Though Serana guided him, he could hardly see the difference between one stone wall and the next. They finally made it to a wooden door and with some effort they got the stuck door to open. Serana came out into the open in absolute horror. There was a resemblance almost of a garden, but it was now long since dead. Broken jars, turned over tables, broken tables. Old benches. Rails covered in cobwebs. And even here that thick atmosphere that he couldn't shake sat heavily.
"What happened?" Serana said.
"No one managed it," Lucil replied.
"Very funny," Serana said with a glare.
"You going to be okay?" Lucil asked.
"I don't know," Serana said, "This place use to be so beautiful."
As Serana looked over wilted flowers with the only surviving Nightshade, Lucil eyes were distracted by the moon dial in the middle of the grounds. He knew what it was since he had seen similar concepts in Dwemer ruins. Serana shook herself from her horror and moved her head to see what he was looking at.
"That's the moon dial," Serana said.
"I figured," Lucil said.
"My mother was obsessed with that thing," Serana said, "I don't really even know why. Hey some of the dials are missing."
"It appears it's a puzzle," Lucil said.
"Let's search around to see if we can find the missing pieces," Serana said.
And just like that they both were spread out in the small garden grounds looking for missing pieces of this moon dial. He saw a glint of something in a puddle of water, or was it a pond. He sighed. Taking off his boots and socks, he rolled up his pants and walked into the water to grab the dial piece. Serana stared at him from across a small balcony.
"Afraid of some water?" she asked.
"I rather risk the cold like this, instead of having wet cold clothes," Lucil said.
She only smiled and Lucil found his hand twitch again staring at her. He thought about how lovely she looked up their on the balcony. Lucil looked away, his thoughts were getting crazy and running away from him. It must be this thick air. He put back on his boots and socks and they finally both met back up at the moon dial and placed the missing pieces in their right order, stairs emerged and Serana looked rather impressed. She gave Lucil a small glance.
"Just like my mother," she said.
"Impressive," Lucil said.
"Shall we?" she asked.
"Ladies first," Lucil said.
"Well then go,"
They carefully walked down the stairs and found themselves in another dusty, stone wall corridor. Lucil crouched down, and Serana sighed, but refused to crouch down. Lucil didn't mind he had faith in her that she could help handle the situation. As they wondered through the stone corridors, they found themselves in a dinning room. Not thinking much about the candles flickered and the dead rose from their meal. Skeletons creaked as they tried to detect the intruders. Serana to give Lucil some leeway through an ice pick at and chaos began to ensue. He snuck around one of them and quickly turned him into a pile of pieces that needed rearranging. Suddenly a heavy blade wizzed past him and he managed to get out of the way in the right time. Darn these bones, he stood up from the ground and swung as hard as he could to hit the skeleton that had went after him. The skeleton seemed to take his hit as a joke and the flames were there to warm him up in this cold air. The skeleton stared at him, if it could even stare and swung its sword again at him. He blocked it for a second time.
Focusing with inner meditation his free hand not holding a dagger felt energy swarm into his hand. A burning, warming fiery sensation. He casted firebolts down at the skeleton, that seemed to catch it's attention. If skeletons felt anger, this one certainly did as it swung its sword an ice pick had it crumble to pieces. Lucil looked at Serana and Serana looked at Lucil. She gave him a face that said, I keep saving your life. He only gave her a smug look and they made their way from the dead man's feast meandering through small little halls, taking corner after next corner. The next room looked like a small entertainment room, well he couldn't really describe what any of this was. As he made his way into the room an arrow whizzed past them. More tough bastards. A new battle sprung forth and they like last time had these skeletons crumble to dust.
Serana pointed to a chain behind a gargoyle to open the door and Lucil stared at it. Something inside of him felt uneasy, he made his way to the chain and pulled it. The sound of the door rang through the room, and he began to walk away from the chain. The sound of crumbling stone and a roar from behind him. A gargoyle emerged in the flesh and ready for it's onslaught. Lucil quickly moved down the stairs to regroup with Serana. But the gargoyle was quickly coming down the stairs.
"What should we do?" he asked.
"Kill it," Serana said, "Simple enough."
"Fine," he said.
Tightening his grip on his dagger he provoked the creature with a scratch. Yeah smart idea, attack a stone creature with a dagger. Lucil casted a firebolt at the gargoyle and Serana casted ice pick from the far corner. The gargoyle didn't seem to take a liking to being hit. Hitting Lucil, Lucil moved out of the way, but not without damage as he stumbled trying to catch himself from the impacted guard, the gargoyle lunged forward toward Serana. Serana didn't give up, she took out her dagger and furiously began to fight with the gargoyle. A clash of claws and a dagger, with her powerful magic. But she too finally succumbed to the creatures might and fell to her knees. The gargoyle was going to place a final blow on her, but Lucil quickly threw his dagger at the creature. The gargoyle lit up in flames as his Dagger of Imolation made impact. Rather upset the gargoyle simply pulled out the dagger as if it were a toy and quickly came running after Lucil. This is why Lucil carried two weapons. Taking out his Orcish Blade, known as the Shrouded Shade Blade and prepared for the creatures impact. Rolling out of the way of it's first claw, Lucil attacked it from behind, the gargoyle sense another form of burning, but this was energy of the moon itself.
It turned around and swung, he dodge and hit it again. It took a few good six or so dents into the gargoyle for it to finally step backwards, fall over and die. He was out of breath, he could barely breathe. That battle was tough, that thing was strong. He heard Serana scuffle a bit. He heard her steps and she walked over to him, and handed him his dagger of immolation.
"You okay?" she asked slightly out of breath herself.
"Fine...what..about yourself?" he asked.
"That won't dent me," she said.
He felt the tingling warmth in his unbladed hand and he casted a restoration on his whole body. Serana only stared at the gargoyle.
"Those bastards are tough," she said.
"Agreed," Lucil said.
They walked out of the room to make their way through meandeirng hallways again. They seemed to walk through the hallway without trouble, passing statues and more statues. Until the sound of stone began to crumble away and emerged a gargoyle. Lucil groaned slightly, but both him and Serana put their best foot forward and wildly attacked the gargoyle like savage beast. The gargoyle fell down dead to their savage attack, but Lucil could feel his arm beginning to ache. He was not a warrior, strong attacks like that were not his specialty. They made their way up what felt like a lot of stairs, more stairs, more hallways, more stone, more cobwebs. Until they made it to what appeared to be the last room. There were four or so gargoyles, oh this was going to be great. Walking into the room, they walked past one gargoyle without incident. Then suddenly a crumble of stone and a gargoyle emerged from it's stoney form, it quickly dived and pushed Lucil into the wall. He coughed slightly as the wind was taken right of him. They heard another crumble of stone, and Serana was ambushed by two gargoyles. Darn these things were trying to separate them.
Lucil struggled at the gargoyles grip, these things didn't seem to bright as it let go of him to go help out it's brethen against Serana. He stumbled up and hit the creature before it left his presence. He winced slightly as pain surged through his chest. How bad did the gargoyle get him, he wondered. But now was not the time nor the place to care. The gargoyle turned back towards him and began to furiously attack with claws, he dodged as much as he could despite the pain he was feeling. Attacking as viciously as he could. His arm pounding and aching with ever hit he made. He was hitting to hard, to strong. He fear the dagger may break under this pressure. But as he was at his limit, so was the gargoyle and it felt to it's death engulfed in weak flames of the blade. Lucil didn't have time to take a breath and he managed out of the room.
Serana managed to kill one gargoyle, but struggled with the other. He focused his energy changing the nature of his magicka and threw the firebolt at the gargoyle. It fell down and rolled slightly down the stairs dead.
"Thanks," Serana managed to say trying to catch her own breath.
"You're welcome," Lucil said.
"Hey you okay?" she asked.
"Fine," Lucil said without the strength to make a gargoyle joke.
"You need to take it easy for a second," Serana said.
"I'll heal up, let's just find the secret to this room," Lucil said.
The two walked into the room that they had been ambushed, Lucil once again focused and changed the nature of his magicka. He engulfed his whole body in a healing light. Many of his wounds healed, though the aching in his arm didn't stop, nor did the pain in his sides. Serana had been searching the room and she looked disappointed.
"There is nothing here," she said.
Lucil began his own search, stroking the stone walls and he noted the strangeness of the back wall. There must have been something to it. There was only two candlesticks at the sides. It couldn't be. He pushed one of the candlesticks in and a door opened.
"Why of course," Serana said, "It was right in front of our faces."
As they walked through the hidden door they found themselves in a secret labaratory. Serana looked rather impressed and almost admired the old dusty labaratory.
"This is amazing...I had no idea," Serana said.
"This is also impressive,"
"But what was my mother doing here? What is this strange circle in the middle of this room?"
"Does your mother leave any recordings?" Lucil asked.
"Yes, my mother's notes. We should search for them," Serana said.
They both scattered across the lab in search of notes, Lucil made his way to the bookcase and began to scan the books. He quickly found a binding not like the others and he grabbed it. Searching through it, this must have been Seranas' mother's notes.
"I found," he called out lifting up the journal for Serana to see.
He winced wishing he hadn't done that. He walked over to Serana and handed her the journal.
"Of course," Serana said.
"Of course what?" Lucil asked.
"My mother's notes mention a Soul Cairn, why didn't I think about that?" Serana asked, "We'll need some ingredients to put in that basin up there. But there is a problem."
"A problem?" Lucil said.
"We'll need my mother's blood," Serana said.
"You are your mother,"
"I suppose you're right,"
"I'll go look for the items to put in the basin,"
He moved upstairs with the idea of what he needed, and he began to quickly collect what was needed. In no time he managed to collect all the items and place them into the basin. Serana gave a bit of a look and sighed before cutting herself and putting her blood into the basin. As she did so, a staircase emerged and a strange glowing purple light began to manifest.
"Shall we go?" she asked.
Lucil nodded, as he walked down the stairs he felt the Soul Cairn pull at him. It was painful and it felt like it was trying to rip him apart. He moved away from the light and Serana walked over.
"That looked painful," she said.
"It was," Lucil said, "What is that?"
....To Be Continued Next time Narrative of the Soul Cairn
