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.
Heartfire, 6th, 4E 8234
Well, I met with Arantheal and his little war council – camped out at the Pyrean ruin for the night and took the Myrad back to Ark in the morning – and it looks like they don't put as much stock in this "Beacon" as he does. Can't really say I blame them. But what else do we have to go on? We have literally no other leads. That being the case, despite her reservations, the Truchessa’s ordered the arcanists to get started building the thing – or rather, putting it back together. Hopefully as it starts looking less and less like a relic we’ll get some more insight into how to, you know, actually use it.
But while that’s going on, Arantheal wants to reconvene everyone tomorrow to discuss another matter that just came up. Not sure what it is, but it seemed to have him a bit nervous. But until then I've got a free day. I took the opportunity to get changed and wash up. My armor needs a bit of a polishing too. I should also find Calia and ask her about what happened in the ruins. She might not owe me an answer, but she said she'd give me one, and I want to know.
Well, I certainly got my answer. About a week ago Calia told me about her past, about how she was found as a kid in a burned down village and all that. Well, it turns out that she wasn't entirely honest when she said she didn't remember anything about what happened there; apparently, she can recall watching the carnage from a bird's eye view, observing as everything burned, like she wasn’t in her own body. But here’s the real kicker: she says the carnage made her feel… good. Gave her satisfaction. That was a bit unnerving. Then she explained what happened in the ruin.
Apparently, she has some sort of... demon in her head. I guess that's a way to describe it. Another... soul, so to speak. It flares up whenever there's a lot of carnage – blood, slaughter, that sort of thing. She's worked her whole life to control it because when she lets it take over she goes... well, berserk, and kills just about everything. Just like what happened in the ruin; when she saw the bandit leader and the blood on his sword, she just lost it. And, just like her vision of the village, she enjoyed the carnage; she enjoyed ripping him apart.
That sensation, that bloodthirst is always there, she says, whispering from behind her shoulder, urging her to give in, go berserk and slaughter everything. I can’t imagine the amount of self-control she’s developed to keep whatever this thing is in check. It explains why she always seems so reserved, at least.
But the main takeaway from this is that whatever’s in her head is dangerous. Even if it gives her immense power, she can’t control it. What I saw in the ruins Calia told me is just a fraction of what she feels she could be capable of, and she’s terrified of what would happen were she to completely lose control. And, honestly… so am I.
After that bombshell, I need to do something to occupy my mind. Calia wanted to be left alone, which is understandable, so I made myself busy cleaning off my armor and weapons for a bit. Then I remembered a flyer I saw in the upper district. Someone looking for some gruntwork. Turned out to be a Starling scientist working on some mechanical… thing in the Upper City. Wants to transfer his mind into a robot body or something like that. Fortunately, the crazy ones pay pretty well. He sent his assistant off to find some material, but he hasn’t heard back from her. That’s where I come in, naturally. He says she set up a camp in the valley of Wellwatch. That should be a fun little adventure.
I’m exhausted. I spent most of the day fighting hordes of bloody undead mixed with a few bandits here and there. Once I landed in Wellwatch, I figured I could make some decent coin clearing out the area around the Myrad tower to start. Problem was the main landmarks around the tower were a fortress and a massive set of tunnels connected to another fortress.
The former was crawling with bandits. That’s where I stumbled across the camp of the lass I was looking for (her name’s Pahtira). Followed a trail to one of the bandits’ main camps and slaughtered all of them with Alice. To my surprise, Pahtira was still alive. She said she’d meet me back in Ark after thanking me; turns out the bandits had taken some dynamo or something from her, but I had cleared out the fortress where they were held up, so she could just waltz in and take it back. So that was convenient.
After that, I finished mopping up the fortress and scoped out the land a bit. As a bit of a side note, that castle’s got really good positioning. It’s a really fortified location, and I should probably keep it in mind. After that I went north and tackled the other fortress. This one belonged to lord Dal’Marak. He’s the arcanist who blew up Thalgard and turned it into a wasteland (another side note: I’m glad I didn’t have to head there. That place radiates unease I felt from the Myrad tower, with a range of mountains between us).
I took on some powerful undead who actually gave me a bit of a run for my money, and found a good amount of gold. I also dug up this armor; it looks ancient and it’s dusty as hell, but Halda said that she might be able to do something really nice with it, given some time. So I left it with her.
Other than that, the day was mainly an exercise in killing swaths of enemies. Like I said, these weren’t average undead (and the bandits weren’t too weak either), so I got a chance to try out some new skills and sharpen up a few things. Looking back, I racked up an impressive body count. Cleared out pretty much all of the Wellwatch valley.
Granted, doing so took everything out of me. I’m sore all over – no lasting injuries, fortunately, thanks to some magical healing – and I’m barely staying awake. Arantheal’s meeting can wait. I want to get some bloody sleep. I won’t be of any use if I’m nodding off, after all.
Link to Enderal. It's important to note that the writing above is based almost entirely on the story created by an extraordinarily talented group of modders. Credit is due to them, not to me. I would also be remiss to not credit Arcones for the idea of using a parchment-looking background to add some flavor.
You'd think Calia would have taken on a more passive role in the Order, like archivist or engineer or something in that regard. If carnage awakens the beast, why don heavy armour and swing a two-hander?
It's a question you can ask her, I believe. I can't remember the answer, but I think it was something along the lines of being able to do something meaningful/impactful as a Keeper because it's such a high and looked-up-to position. She sees it as the place she can do the most good. That and she doesn't think a life cooped up in a study is for her.