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, 4th, 4E 8234
Hell of a busy day today. Woke up and took a pair of jobs, one from a woman named Erika who owns an art gallery, and the other from an old Arazalean. The former wanted me to check on her mother in the Dark Valley. The latter wanted me to get a key in an old village near a town called Fogville. It's supposed to be to a laboratory that might have some information on how the Whisperwood plague started. Definitely something to look into.
Anyways, I just got the key. Dug it up in a cellar of an abandoned port village. I've set up for the night in a camp previously owned by a pair of wild mages who are now floating at the bottom of the seabed. Not too much trouble, overall. Not as bad as the Arps at least. Grotesque creatures. They look human, but they're completely savage. Even looking at their corpses makes me feel uncomfortable. But I've got Alice keeping watch, so I'm not worried.
I developed my abilities a bit further. I'm exploring some new facets of Entropy, now that I think I’m starting to get a proper handle on it. Figured out how to find and conjure up realities where my enemies turn against one another. It's pretty great. Just as a bit of a bonus, I can make it so once one of my puppets dies, it lets off this massive explosion. Damned useful. Also honed my soul devouring. It's hard to describe, but whenever I do it now, I feel… stronger. The way things are going, I’m feeling more and more like that Dark Keeper the wanderer described in his stories. I like it.
But before all of that, a lot of other stuff went down. First and foremost, I took a stroll through the Whisperwood, which was fantastic. It really is hauntingly beautiful. Incredibly dangerous, yes, but easily my favorite place in Enderal so far. I remember the song Liliath taught me in Riverville and it fits really well. It’s strange, but in the back of my mind it’s almost like I can make out some faint singing in the background. It kind of puts me at ease.
After collecting myself, I collected on a bounty put on a group of bandits with some monstrous troll. They had set up in a place called Grimlight Gallery. It was actually a neat little hideout – an abandoned mine by the looks of things, with this big ravine (it was loads of fun to kick some of the bandits down the endless chasm). They all put up a decent fight, but not decent enough to, you know, survive.
One interesting thing I found there was a suit of plate armor. If I know my history right, it belongs to a warrior named Selna. I don't know much about her other than that she was incredibly powerful, used a massive war ax, and lumbered around in almost unbreakable armor. Armor that I'm now wearing. Legends tend to wax a bit too lyrical, but this armor's actually pretty nice. It feels great, and it's definitely tougher than even the Keeper armor I got. It also just makes me feel stronger. There are other pieces of the armor: greaves, vambraces, a helm. I'm going to look into it when I get back to Ark, do some research and maybe some treasure-hunting.
Anyways, after my trek through the Whisperwood, I decided to head through the Dark Valley to check on Erika’s mother like I said I would. Had to fight a whole lot of Lost Ones and Vartyrs. Funnily enough, I also ended up encountering Arvheldhiin the Wanderer (one of those legendary creatures I talked about a long time ago). He was... interesting. Thought he was some random bandit at first, but when I knocked him onto his ass with Blutgang his skin tore off and he turned into a giant fucking wolf. Tough bastard, but I managed to put him down. I guess these myths and legends are a bit more than fairy tales after all.
As I got closer to the house Erika marked on my map, I had to fight a veritable horde of conjured guardians. Went up against another when I got inside. Well, turns out they were all conjured up by this woman. Her name is Andrasta. In addition to being Erika’s mother, she’s a painter who supplies portraits for her daughter’s art gallery. Well, sort of. More on that in a bit. She hadn’t sent anything in a while. Hence Erika hiring me to check on her. According to Andrasa, one of her paintings was stolen recently, and she told me to find the bandits who took it, and bring it back.
Well, I found the bandits. Tore through them pretty nicely with Alice. But when I found the painting, it started talking to me. Said that Andrasta uses magic to bind the spirits of nobles who seek portraits to the canvas. She's got a grudge against the nobles, it seems. Can't say I blame her, but I don't like murder. The guy who got bound to the portrait is a mercenary. A witch hunter sent to investigate Andrasta. She bound him to the painting, but his companion knocked her out before she could finish. The girl, Lyf, I believe, fled with the portrait but got waylaid by the bandits; they killed her.
After that little episode, I took the painting and went to the harbor close to Fogville. Had to go up against a few Arps along the way, and those wild mages I mentioned earlier, but it wasn't too much trouble. After I dug up the key I set up camp. I've got Fortress Fogwatch marked on my map. I'm going to have to pay it a visit sometime soon.
But for now, I'm going to rest up here. It's been a long day and I'm exhausted. It's probably obvious from how sparse this journal entry is. I'll deal with Andrasta tomorrow. But I don't intend to let her get away with any of this.
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.
