In To The Gross

Well I told the arch mage and he sent me out to inspect odd happenings at this one site.. Things are starting to happen fast now and from my experience in my last incarnation here is where the questline starts to get gross.

The task given to me was to go to this site and see what is going on. I didn't set out immediately however, it was getting dark and I wanted to sleep the night first. I managed to find a vacant bed in the basement of the AU sleeping quarters for all the mages. Unfortunately for me all the beds upstairs are always all taken.. I went down the stairs and into the basement to the vacant bed  but along the way passed a mage laying in his bed near by casting spell after spell on himself. I though it odd, but nothing much of it.. they can do what they want.. and went to sleep in my bed.
I awoke to find this:

Don't mind Val's blather. He blabbers about things sometimes. The very mage who had been casting spells on himself was dead in his bed. I am guessing the spells were healing spells as his health had been increasingly dropping.. most likely to disease. Poor guy. I can't help but think how creepy it is to wake up and find a mage you saw alive just the night before dead in his bed near yours though. It gave me the willies. I searched his person for something of value but found nothing, downed a cure disease potion in case i'd caught anything from searching a dead body, and continued on to business.

I rode up to the site with perfect timing. I couldn't believe the luck I had with my timing! I hopped off my steed a little ways down the hill and sneaked up to peer over the side and see a necromancer creating a black soul gem right there on the alter before my very eyes! I watched wide eyed while he did, then finished and he stood. I recieved the conformation that this part of the quest was finished and I should report back to the arch mage.. so I stood with the intent to hop back on my tricorn and leave. I sheathed my staff - the necromancer turned and looked at me "oops". I knew right then I shouldn't have taken such a bold move as to sheath my weapon when the necromancer could catch the movement with his pereferal (sorry I can't spell) vision. Oooof course then he starts attacking. And of course, Val is the first to meet him in battle! He rushed past me before I even had time to gasp at my heinous mistake and by the time I opened my mouth to yell "val!" upsetedly he was already well ahead of me engaging the enemy. So I engaged and killed the necromancer with Val.
Yay! I got some black soul gems from his pockets!

Well I hopped back on my horse to mosey on down the hills to the city again to report my findings when I come accross this shrine to a goddesss of sorts.. Impressive looking statue.

I speak to some of the worshippers to find out who the shrine is dedicated to, Vaermina, and what it takes to speak with the goddess. Knowing that gods and goddesses often bestow great gifts upon people who complete favors for them I said I wished to speak to her, but the follower of the goddess said to do so requires a black soul gem. Just so happens I happen to have one from the necromancer back at his camp thingy! So I walk up to the statue, not knowing what i'm getting myself in to as I gaze up at the impressive looking woman, and reach in my pocket to place a black soul gem (which by the way I am not supposed to be doing anything with other than taking it to the arch mage..) on the statues pedestal in offering... aaannndd the goddess says I'm not strong enough yet. Great.. grumbling to myself I pocket the soul gem again and hop on my tricorn and continue down the road.

Here is a beautiful view of the countryside.

Along the way, as is often the case, a bandit sneaks out of some ruins or behind some bushes or whatever and attempts to kill us for our loot. Immediately to help Val, but mostly to loot the body afterwords, I hop off my tricorn and run up to a second bandit running straight toward me with his weapon drawn! I raise my staff and put on my game face to meet him in battle! AAAARRRR!... only to have him run right past me.. huh?
So, I turned around to see "what the heck", and burst out laughing.

Seems he thought my tricorn would be a better opponent for him! Stupid fool! XD How mistaken he is! I felt really sorry for him, as he really stood no chance against my mighty mythical beast. My tricorn is immortal, it can't die, so even if he was weak (which he's ten times stronger than I) the bandit still wouldn't win. It would just be a longer battle. As fate has it, the tricorn was able to slay the bandit with only three kicks and I got a lot of awesome loot from the whole ordeal, which in the city I was able to sell for over six thousand septims, woohoo! Val couldn't help but make a humorous comment about us being almost rich, too!

I spoke with the arch mage and he seemed grim. He sent me on the next quest which I didn't take any pictures of, and nothing super extravagant happend so there isn't much to tell. I was mostly just going through the motions since I remember everything from my last incarnation.. but I can tell you during my last incarnation this questline from this specific task on greatly began to disturb me. It had been the very first time i'd ever done the mages guild main quest line. Now it doesn't bother me because I know completely what to expect and how it's all going to end.. but back when I first did it I had a sick feeling in the back of my throat during this questline specifically. You see.. the task was to go figure out why a mage was not reporting back.. yeah.. one of those again. This mage had infiltrated the necromancers and had been acting as an inside informant.

Well everything went according to the way it was meant to in the game. I killed all the necromancers trying to kill me, got a ton of loot from the whole task and became very wealthy, not that it'll lastlong.
The disturbing part begins when I first enter the ruins. I am met with a fellow mage who is very panicked and frightened. He says everyone inside is in danger and he was the only one who escaped. Before I could even get a word in edgewise he was like "quick! Follow me!" and took off without even checking to see if I could even keep up. Lucky for him I easily could... but as he rushed down the steps, through the short, dark tunnel and into the next deserted room the floor (or rather a platform in the floor) swept him up into the cealing crushing him and I gasped as I saw this (I had forgotten about this part) and took a stumble backwards. When the floor slowly lowered his body was on the platform lifeless. There was nothing of value on it. I tell you it's funny when it happens to you, a bad guy or Val.. but when it happens to an innocent NPC that spoke to you as your friend it's different. Then it was up to lonely ol' me, and Val.

The second disturbing portion comes when I meet the first necromancer, dressed in regular day clothes and looking quite friendly when I begin talking, but she quickly turns sinister and tries to kill me. But before that, she says that poor Mucianus, whom is the one i've been sent to check on, is now a worm thrall. I knew what she meant, but the first time I played I had no idea what that was but knew it sounded very grim. All of the necromancers are easily killed by both Val and I, and I looted the hallways and rooms bare. When I enter the very last room this is what I find.. a solitary soul, or soulless one now, wandering around.

Trust me, you don't want to see his front side. This is all that is left of the poor mage that was Mucianus. He has been turned into a zombie. I quickly completed the task and turned around heading out to report my findings... but the very first time I played I stood there staring sadly, so sadly at this poor soul for who knows how many minutes.. At first I was horrified! Then I was swallowed in sadness as I thought of just how, yesterday perhaps, he was a flesh and blood person bright and lively, perhaps smiling and laughing at jokes and life. He had friends, he had a career and maybe even a family.. Now he's doomed to wander this gloomy, dank room under ground, perhaps forever. I certaintly wasn't going to kill him. I didn't have the heart. He was not attacking me, and seemed very harmless.. but even if he had been a blood thirsty zombie attacking me and Val like all the others I would have just turned around and run away. As I did this time, last time I just left him there.
That is the moment I decided necromancy was disgusting and horrible. all my years playing oblivion and other games I had liked zombies, thought they were amusing, funny, sometimes even might make a good pet (Shaun Of the Dead anyone?). I loved games and movies with zombies.. and loved the idea of necromancy in Morrowind. This questline completely changed my mind about all of that.


Back at the Arcane University I reported the grim news and was appointed the rank of Worlock.

(completely unnecessary picture but who cares)

 Before taking my next task since it was again night I decided to head to the mages quarters for a rest again, only to find... this! :O

I gasped and stared gawking at the sight before me! There was the dead mage still in his bed, and another mage sleeping with him! Didn't she know she was sleeping with a dead person?! After getting over the initial shock of seeing such a thing and how gross that might be, I couldn't help but begin laughing as how silly it looked as well!  Apparently the game doesn't recognise the dead body as using the bed.
Then I turned around and saw this:

A second one! Someone else had died while I was gone, and it was also happening here! Two people in the bed! Lol XD

Today's adventures stop here. And as promised, here is a look at my current stats:

"How do you get such high stats so fast and so good at everything so fast?" You ask? Well I work hard at it. I run EVERYWHERE I go, even if i'm falling down and stumbling from fatigue. I talk to people a lot and have even done so to Val for the very purpose of practicing my speech craft. I jump a lot, that and running raises acrobatics. I made sure to use my weapons a lot on everything, sometimes even walls, just to get better at them. I also make a point to cast spells where applicable instead of lockpicks to practice my alteration. In short.. use everything, practice practice practice! Also, don't mind the "diseases caught" thing. Because of my mod it doesn't recognise them any more. Diseases caught: Many!