Into Skyrim, Elder Scrolls 8 Nirn's Beta

Chapter 111: The mighty to-do list

Chapter 111 - The mighty to-do listWaking up took slightly longer to that expected. I stored away the Pillow of sweet dreams and left Viree with the Dreamworld amulet. It was her property now, after all without it I imagine it might be a little hard for her to access the dreamscape.

She tossed me the Mentor's ring though, "You don't want it?"

She shook her head, "I don't think it will benefit me in the day to day."

I nodded, that was fair. Viree asked the obvious question though. "What are we doing today?"

I pulled out my notebook and began to get to work on a brief to do list. "Well, to start. Illia will teleport back to Ivarstead and get Philip or you can. Your companionship skill tree requires time apart to level up as well. With the locate partner you can find me no matter what."

She nodded, "Let's leave that job Illia. I don't fancy traveling alone on carriage. I feel like it will be so boring unless I get robbed or something."

I doubted Viree could be robbed, her combined perk points made it possible for her to rip a person in half bare handed. "Which leaves, testing your physical strength, several acquisition tasks, and more me learning several dozen spell tomes. You obviously can't help me learn those spells and test their effects. Which leaves the testing your own physical strength and the acquisition tasks."

She sighed, "I'll start with the acquisition tasks. No offense, but the college is a dump. I don't even know how to test my physical strength without breaking something."

I nodded, "Fair. Okay, the first of these tasks are Forgotten Names. Ask if Gwenn has done this quest. Second task would be taking Kyne to Septimus Signus' Outpost. He can't go with Stephan and certain questions do need to be asked. After this the grounds below the College of Winterhold need to be

"I am asking since this place seems extremely boring. Besides you are being added to the collection of friends. We might as well get along." Once he was bound to the book he would become summonable, or at least his soul would be.

He shouted, "I do not want to be your friend. I was supposed to defend this place!"

I clicked my tongue at him, "No, you were supposed to defend the Great Welkynd Stone. Which I am here to steal."

He blinked and stuttered, "H-How do you know about that!"

Ignoring his question, I entered the vault and looked around. The place was a circular room with a spiked pedestal in the room. The similar pedestal hung from the room and the two spikes met the Welkynd Stone in the center of the room. I yanked it from its floating storage.

I stepped back into the room where Norion was still struggling to resist the power of the forge. He had grown incredibly close to the portal. His skeletal legs already vanishing past the entrance of the portal. He stared at me, "Put it back! My reason to become Lich! How could you ruin my life's purpose."

I shrugged, "Blame yourself. If you weren't a lich I wouldn't have been able to do this."

He stared, "What do you mean?"

I stepped through the portal and met his gaze. "Well, the portal is being sustained by your magic. While the book binds your soul into a summoning spell. A ring of salt is what is containing you, while the portal itself was created by Keening's crystal and some moonstone ore to supplement it."

He stared with his skeletal mouth hanging open. "Astonishing, you used the Welkynd crystal that was used to forge keening to open a portal to the closest Great Welkynd stone. A fascinating use of that infernal machine."

I nodded as his praise, but commented on the Lich's absent-mind. "You do realize you are still being absorbed."

He frowned, "Going by what you said, if I do break free I will just be stuck on this side of the portal. Which means I will have failed my duties. Which means I would need to leave my tomb and hunt you down to retrieve the stone. The problem is I have no idea where you are, but ff I accept my fate I will at least have a chance to continue to protect the stone."

Hm, I felt like a monster now. He continued to speak though. "Before I fully embrace my fate. I want to know how you came up with this idea."

I rubbed my chin in some thought. Norion was actually pretty smart despite his clear dementia. "It's hard to explain it all, but essentially some Altmer redesigned the Atronach forge into a dwemer teleporter. The atronach can summon daedra, so I took a leap and used it to open a portal to the Great Welkynd Stone. I needed a method to sustain the portal so knowing you would be defending it. I used a book to bind your soul using the forge's ability to create spell tomes."

He nodded, "This capitalized on a lich's weakness..." Almost his entire body was consumed by the portal at this point. He was practically just arms and a head. He held a hand to his chin though. "I suppose I don't mind being defeated like this. It is an interesting death at least, having my magic siphoned to fuel a portal while my soul is being transcribed into a summoning spell. I do wonder where my soul will actually go though when it separates from my body completely."

I hadn't mentioned the Star Prison, but it was where his soul was being pulled too. If I hadn't used the Star prison I suspected my plan would've failed. A second later he nodded, "You said you were named Vek? Please do summon me at some point I wish to talk to you more. I would especially like to know your reason for acquiring the Great Welkynd Stone."

I nodded and the Lich finally gave up. His body crumbled away and the portal faded away while the Spell Tome snapped shut. I picked up the book and nodded. The spell tome was labeled Conjure Ayleid Lich Norion."

He seemed like a decent guy, likely because his mind was scrambled from Dementia, became a Lich to defend the Great Welkynd Stone, and then got his mind scrambled more from being alone for hundred or something years.

I shrugged and inspected the loot I took off him. The Staff of Ehlno Ede, it blasted the ground with storm walls and drained Stamina of anyone near them, unfortunately it had the restriction of only being usable by the undead. I suppose I could trade it to Sybille or something.

I held up the robes Norion was wearing next. These were useable, "Grants the wearer Elemental Resistance and longevity." I wondered what Longevity meant? As for the Elemental Resistance that explained why he couldn't resist the atronach forge. I stashed it away, the robes would be good for Viree.

Finally I pulled out the fancy crown her was wearing. It was entirely made of metal, though it was feathered and almost bird like. The enchantments were increased spell damage by 5%, something called Idle Augmentation, and Autocast. I equipped it briefly to see its effects, I was surprised to realize the enchantments were really good. Idle Augmentation was an enchantment that allowed rapid spell casting while standing still. While Autocast was an enchantment that would refresh all spells casted upon themselves.

I added it to the belt immediately. The belt had a limit of 12 items and I was slowly filling it. I would do some hard work to reduce the number of items I had currently stored. I paused, checked the time and sighed.

I still had to meet with the Augur of Dunlain and learn all those spell tomes.