Enderal Journal, Entry 11 - Doubt and Conviction blog - AK151

I'm replaying Enderal, a total conversion for Skyrim. I found it well-made, with a gripping story, great characters, and excellent music. I got a whole bunch of mods for my next playthrough, and one adds in a journal one can write in to record thoughts, events, etc. I'll be keeping this journal up as I play, and I figured it would be fun to share it here.

Last Seed, 26th, 4E 8234

Explored the Noble's Quarter a bit more today. There's a poet right outside the inn who's always performing to an audience of one. I read a bit of poetry once. Might put something together, if only to mess with him. He seems pretty self absorbed. There's also the bath house, which has plenty of eye-candy, but not much substance - noblewomen and all that.

Main area of note is Spark Ruler and Firebolt. It's an arcane store, sells tomes and the like. The owner's... eccentric, but her prices are pretty decent. Though I must admit I prefer Ola, the merchant in the Market Quarter. She seems a bit more... personable. There's also an alchemist. Paid her a visit; she was arguing with a Keeper. Apparently her son went and joined a cult or something, and they up and left a little while ago after the Order kicked him out - they settled on an island in the middle of nowhere. Seems the boy's mother paid the Myrad keeper to fly over it and keep tabs on things. Only there hasn't been any sign of activity for a while now. I offered to check it out for her. If I get the time, it could be a good adventure.

Now, Myrads. I haven't written much about them because until today I'd never seen one. But those things are incredible. The Myrad wardens talk with them, tell them where to go via strange clicks. It's impressive how easily they're able to communicate. They didn't have anything like this in Nehrim. Apparently the Myrads can be pretty dangerous if provoked, and they can be found in the wild. Let's hope I don't encounter one. I can imagine they can be fearsome. But flying on the back of one is an experience I can't even describe. Granted, I was in a rush and panic at the time (more on that in a bit), but still, it was incredible.

After I finished gawking at the Myrad, I went to the Undercity for the first time. The best word to describe it is... oppressive. It's so vast, but it all feels so confined. Doesn't help that most people there are either dead, dying, or close enough. I went there for two reasons: first was to help out a merchant with his sister, a drugae addict who was using their inheritance to buy dust (parents died in a bandit raid that burned down their village. Standard tragic backstory at this point). She had stolen the key to the bank vault, and he was hoping I could convince her to give it back. Well, after a bit of talking, I got her to tell me where the key was.

On my way to find it, I stumbled onto another bit of trouble: an alchemist was overcharging the apothecarii for red Vynroot, which is apparently vital to treat flesh maggots (plague that's rampant in the Undercity). The lass trying to get the Vynroot was a half-Aeterna named Nathalia. I offered to help her, and went to confront the merchant. Turns out the guy's in debt to the Rhalata. I'll go into more detail about them later. But after finding out, I decided to give him enough money to pay them off for a bit, on the condition that his prices are affordable. I threw in a threat for good measure. I think he got the message. Nathalia was pretty grateful. And surprised that a surfacer (sun-child, as they call them) bothered to help out. She's a good lass. So far, only good thing about the Undercity.

Anyways, second reason for going down there was to track down a rogue guard. Found him in the abandoned waterworks after a bit of digging and asking around. Didn't put up much of a fight. Made the mistake of trying to block Blutgang with his sword; weapon ended up buckling into his neck. Easy two-hundred pennies, at least.

After wrapping that up, I took a small break and made my way back to the Foreign Quarter to give the key to that merchant. Only he was gone. There was blood on the ground next to his little cart. I figured his sister got to him, and rushed back through the Undercity to her place to see if he was there. He wasn't, but there was a map with a location marked: their old village. The one that burned down. She had taken him there. See, according to her, when the bandits came he left her behind and made a run for it. When she found him in the Undercity later, he barely gave a damn about her. Paid her rent so she'd have a place to live, but didn't do much else. She blames him for just about everything. And the girl had it rough. From the looks of things, she was whoring herself out to survive (well, whoring herself out to pay for glimmerdust. Even though it didn't really seem to help, considering she was apparently using their inheritance money for it).

Regardless, I took a Myrad for the first time to a tower in the Heartland. It was the one nearest to the coast. Rushed to the village and found them, the brother locked in a cage and the sister ready to kill him. I tried to talk her down, but she wouldn't have it. Her mind was addled by the dust, and she couldn't think straight. When she lunged at me with her sword, I tried to disarm her, but I got careless, let her catch me good enough to force me to fight for real. At that point all I could do was kill her. It took all of my willpower not to beat the piss out of the brother. When I confronted him about her accusations, he blamed the drugs, and he might have been right. But someone doesn't start whoring themselves out unless they get desperate, and someone with inheritance backing them wouldn't be desperate. I don't know who was right and who was wrong, so I let the brother go. Left him behind with the corpse of his sister. Maybe he buried her. Maybe he burned her. I don't really care.

I needed to cool down a bit so I took a look through a shipyard, killed off some skeletons, and got some loot. A good haul, I guess. Doesn't really feel like it. Then I 'ported back to Ark (learned a new set of spells involving placing down a rune that can be returned to at will. Put one down in the Ark Market Quarter).

I think the alcohol's starting to kick in. I was a bit more cheery when I started writing, but that's kind of gone away. Overall, not exactly a fun day. Sure, it had plenty of excitement, and I guess I helped a few people out, but at the end of it all, I couldn't even beat a drug addict into submission without killing her. She could've been somewhat justified in her anger. Maybe she was completely addled. Doesn't matter now.

And even my helping out in the Undercity didn't really solve anything. The red Vynroot, the alchemist in debt, all of it. They're just symptoms of the main problem: the Rhalata, and this bastard "Father". They're powerful. I saw two of their agents confronting the alchemist. They were wearing pristine leather, some cloth I've never seen before. Reckon it could stop an arrow like steel plate. And they had shadow steel. There's no way I can take them on right now, and the guard won't bother doing a damn thing. But at some point someone needs to bring them down. Once they're gone, the Undercity might just be able to pull itself back up. There are people willing to do good there. They're just quelled and suppressed by the ones who want to take advantage of that. And as much as I want to help these people, as much as I want to be the Seraph in the Wanderer’s stories, I can't. Today made that clear. But in time maybe I can be something else for the Undercity. I'm not a healer. I'm not a helper. I'm a warrior. And maybe that's what they need right now: a warrior to stand against the Rhalata. I'm not strong enough now, but in time, that's exactly what I intend to do.