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, 20th, 4E 8234
Busy day today. Not done yet, but I've got some time to kill for a bit (more on that later), so I might as well jot some stuff down. Got an early start and took stock of the market for a few hours. Picked up a few new handy tricks. There's a bounty board too. That'll be a good source of income, at least for a bit.
Already collected one. Bandit scum held up in a ruin near Riverville. Him and his louts didn't stand a chance against Alice and I. Blutgang's pulling its weight, and I'm getting really good at swinging it around. Also did a quick favor for an alchemist at the market. She lost some "beauty elixir" in a mine, and hired me to get it back. Well, hiring implies payment. She gave me this big skull in return. Said I could "balance it on my head" in an ancient circle of stones at midnight to help with my arcane fever. No clue how well it'll work, but I won't complain. The experience is handy in any scenario.
Talked to Alfrid too. Figured I should start getting around to what I'm actually here for. He said that Yero got really determined after his mother was killed by bandits on the road. Had a fire inside him that drove him to do some pretty impressive stuff. The old man said that it didn't surprise him that Yero went insane. All that anger driving someone, he figured at some point it would snap and something would happen. He wasn't wrong. Also finally got around to reading Yero's diary. I feel... bad for him. He was such an idealist. It seemed like he was really driven to make the world a better place. And he had someone who shared his dream, someone who could focus it and temper it to help him make it a reality. Sira. They seemed so happy together. Then she died. When I saw the quickness with which it was written down, I can't help but look back at the first words of this journal. I suppose in the heat of the moment, we don't really think about how to beat around the bush. I reckon it drove him over the edge.
Anyways, I'm taking a bit of a job for the mayor of Riverville. His wife's down with some sort of magical illness. It sounds bad: fever, dementia, voices, and bad fits where she has visions or something. His brother's an arcanist and he's stumped. But who knows? I've become unreasonably talented with magic, so maybe I could lend a hand. I'm waiting around for an hour or two for the wife to have another one of her fits. That might shed some light on things... somehow.
Well I'll be damned. I had another one of those weird visions during one of the wife's fits. It was mostly gibberish, but there was a name that stood out: Pentas. Apparently he turned traitor and worked with some of the bandits, then resisted arrest when they confronted him about it. After they killed him, his wife drowned herself. Don't know what the connection is, but maybe I'll find some answers if I take a look through his old homestead.
Damn. Pentas is innocent. He caught Meldor (mayor's brother; the arcanist) sleeping with the mayor's wife. Meldor sent a mercenary to intimidate him. Ended up turning bloody. His wife drowned herself afterwards. Her name was Nira, I think. She was pregnant. Came across the merc while looking for clues. Didn't even wait to exchange words. Quick flash and I replaced the reality where he was living with the one where he was dead. Devoured his soul for good measure. Bastard deserved it. Now to deal with the arcanist.
Meldor's dead. Confronted him on the shore near Pentas' house. He tried to convince me to let him go with a lot of drivel, but nothing justifies what he did. We were a blink away from blows when this ghostly woman showed up. I'd seen her before, giving hints to help me on my way. She just stared at Meldor for a second. Then he rose up into the air and exploded in a pile of ash and bone. I think the ghost was Nira's. I hope she rests in peace. The mayor's wife is getting better. I told him the truth. No clue how he'll take it, but he deserves to know. He's too good for that lying bitch.
Since I spent the day solving one tragedy, I figured I might as well round it out by concluding another. Met Jespar in Yero's basement. Place was loaded with traps, but we navigated them pretty well, until we came across the fire elemental. Thing hit hard, but didn't last too long against my Entropy. That magic's getting stronger. Turns out all the traps were guarding the corpse of his wife. He had her entombed instead of cremated (apparently it's against the law to bury dead). Alongside the corpse was a small diary. From the looks of things, Yero was jaded to the point of nihilism after his wife's death. He deserved better. Got into a bit of a verbal scuffle with Jespar over him, though; mostly arguing about idealism. Jespar looks down on it, to say the least. A few years ago I might have agreed with him, but Sirius was an idealist too, and I respected him more than anyone else on Nehrim. I think Jespar's got some history getting under his skin.
The debate left me a bit hot under the collar, so I left to cool down, first by seeing if that master skull I got from that old lady could actually do anything (not sure if it did, but I actually feel a bit... stronger now, so maybe it did. Funny that) and then by looking into another bounty I had taken up earlier: a troll named Mugmug. Turned out to be a tough bastard. Took him down, but he got in a good hit that messed up my arm. Figured that would be a good point to stop for the day. Set up camp on the coast again. It's storming, but the tent's holding up pretty well. I like it.
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.
