(29) - Fellglow Keep Dungeon - Journal

Loredas 12th of Hearthfire 4E201

We woke up after an undisturbed sleep at the sleeping quarters in Fellglow Keep. After a bread and cheese breakfast we made our way to the other side of the keep towards the entrance of the dungeons below. We could hear a faint sound of chanting and rattling bones behind the door, so we made a stealthy entrance, reaching a room lined with stone tombs. The mage there was clearly not expecting anything hostile to come from this way, as he was standing with his back towards us as we entered. One well aimed arrow was enough to silence his chanting for good.

... a room lined with stone tombs.

However, when his body slammed to the ground, several lids on the tombs opened and at least 4 skeletons rose from the grave. They were no match for our bone shattering axes. After searching the room for valuables, and taking another book from a stand, we continued through a corridor. In a next room two mages got startled by our presence, and as we retreated around a corner they ran up to us. I guess they shouldn't have, as they set off two traps riddling them with arrows. All it needed was a single swing of my axe to fell their bleeding bodies.


In the room after that, another two mages oblivious of our presence, and I killed the first one with two well aimed arrows before he could even rise up from his bench. The second one was harder, and several times my elven armor trembled with sparks as he sent a continuous stream of shocking energy towards me. Lydia managed to run up to him with her battle axe, then it was over. Inside the room we found a dead man in a hanging cage, judging from his facial features clearly a vampire. This was my first real life encounter with a vampire, and I was relieved it was a dead one. I scraped some dust of his dry skin, collecting it in an empty bottle, as I knew this was a valuable alchemy ingredient I could easily sell.

As soon as we went through the next corridor we could hear wolves cry, so we proceeded with caution, surprising another mage in the next room. Luckily the wolves were locked up in one of three cages, which I opened up using levers in the middle of the room, leaving the wolves for Lydia to handle. In a next room we managed to surprise another two mages, and they fell quickly as we rushed upon them with axes drawn, giving them little time to use their magic. The room was obviously a torture room, and it seemed like the mages had continued its use, as there were dead Khajiit and vampires as well as a dead Nord laying around in distorted poses, covered in blood. I looted what I could, shielding my mind from the idea what horrors they must have endured.

... levers in the middle of the room,...

The next room only had, one mage in it, no match for the two of us, and looked more like a prison. Each holding cell had dead vampires in it, though I gave all a hew with my axe to make sure they were before gathering more vampire dust. The following rooms and hallways were all partly flooded, and contained nothing more but a few pesky, but easy to kill skeevers. Once we left through the last door to return to the inner courtyard of Fellglow Keep, we found a little surprise waiting for us.


As our eyes adjusted to the bright outdoor light, three well armed hirelings jumped us. In contrast with the robe wearing mages who had not been prepared for our attacks, this fight was of a different order. This time it was us being unprepared, and we had a hard time blocking their attack. I even had to run off shortly in order to not become overpowered, but managed to slay two of the assailants from behind after they had all turned on Lydia, who had little choice left then to hold up her battle axe in defense. After defeating the last of the three, I searched their bodies, and found a contract on one of them. It stated:

Here is the agreed upon amount. I

expect you to faithfully carry out my

request to teach a lesson to the thief

Gwenneth Gut-Ripper. You need not

kill her, but I have no qualms about it if

you deem it necessary.

-- Gerda

So it seemed I had been spotted on my little extra reward trip through Dragonsreach after all, by a servant nonetheless. I was kind of surprised she had taken matters in her own hand instead of reporting me to local authorities. I guess she had feared me getting off lightly due to my status of Thane, and wanted to teach me a lesson this way. I guess it could have been that one of the books I stole was hers, I hadn't paid much attention from who's quarters I had gathered my 'reward'. I would need to think about what to do about this, if anything at all.

View towards Whiterun

Lydia and I dragged the bodies of the hired thugs out of sight, then ate some warmed up rabbit haunch and baked some potatoes at the still smoldering fire in the Keep's courtyard. The trip back to Whiterun was uneventful, and we arrived at sunset. I hurried along the stores, selling off loot before closing time, arriving at Arcadia's Cauldron last. Before selling my found potions, she offered me a cure disease potion recipe for sale. I bought it, as I had seemed to be a magnet for rockjoint, especially during my first weeks of my return to Skyrim. It stated I should mix mudcrab chitin and vampire dust together. That was lucky, the area around Whiterun was abound with mudcrabs, and I had just gathered masses of vampire dust in Fellglow Keep.


Arriving at Breezehome we ate a dinner of freshly seared slaughterfish, followed by a spicy venison stew. I dismissed Lydia, handing her a few bottles of mead, and I tried my luck at the alchemy table. The mudcrab chitin I had still laying around was crushed easily, and mixed with the vampire dust the potion was much easier to distill then the health draining poisons I had tried to make two days ago. At the end of the evening I had a nice stock of cure disease potions cooling in their flasks on the stone floor.
I just finished three bottles of mead (or were it four?) while writing this, so I think I'll sleep well...