Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Part #39 - Back to the main game!

Part 39: Back to the main game!

Zebrin posted:

gods, that pilgrimage. send me over hells half acre for what exactly?

Well, from what I hear it leads to Chrysamere. So yeah, fuck it. Absolutely no need for that questline whatsoever.

Axe Master posted:

Before the expansions, medium armor is the absolute worst, for a multitude of reasons

To be fair, they do have the best wizard pauldrons. And glass armor is hideous. But enough about that. Update time!

Back to the ~~future~~ main game!

There. There's Vvardenfell. I can finally go back. Don't get me wrong, now - Bloodmoon had pretty good production values, and I liked some of the loot. But it honestly felt way too sparsely populated, there wasn't a lot to do, caves were few and far between, quests were vague, and near the end, I got repeatedly murdered by werewolves who, as it turns out, were level 70 acrobats. It felt goddamn unfinished and was prrrrobably a bit of a ripoff for, like, probably thirty bucks back in the day.

So I feel that the game owes me a fistful of sick jumps.

Y'know what else I loved about Bloodmoon? Waiting for days upon days for the weather not to be shitty. So long, ya damn iceberg!

HUP

Okay, so maybe the spell didn't take me all the way to this rock off the coast, but I figured it'd look cooler this way. So forgive me for the jump cut.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get my rob on, if you know what I'm saying.

(I'm saying I have to commit a robbery.)

There we go.

Now that she's dead, the first order of business is storage.

There we go. Just cram some of the more useless crap from Solstheim in there. Bury those memories, Lizard Wizard.

Our other order of business is mixin'! I'd like to get my alchemy skill up to 80 so I can advance in the mages' guild. And goddamn, is it good to finally be near civilization so I can actually do that. Anyway, back to adventure.

I pick up a quest on the way out of town because hey, I'm feeling nice. Wait, lighted tree?

Yyyyyup. Lighted tree. Well, that's pretty stupid.

And here's the camp, complete with a what-the-fuck-do-you-want stare. And no, that dunmer in the back isn't Madura. She's got distinctly tribal garb that you can't see too well in this screenshot.

See? Tribal-y.

She's probably inside. Also, apparently something distracted Morrowind-me just then.

Yup. Nailed it.

C'mon, Madura, let's make a break for it!

Christ, that looked violent. Now, here's the plan. You rush out there, hide behind a rock or something, and I'll stab the others. Ready? Move!

FIFTEEN SECONDS LATER...

...I should go.

As you may recall, when we rescued what's-her-face from the floating meteor prison in Vivec, she told us to go see someone in Ebonheart about visiting a secret hideout.

So it's time to go south!

And south!

And south some mo- ooh, mushrooms.

Science break!

Hey Dreamer how's it going.

In case you couldn't tell, it was a pretty uneventful trip to Ebonheart. We talk to her and board the fast travel widget, what can I say.

Pretty cool-looking place, though! The entrance only opens at dawn and dusk, but I figured I'd show off these awesome stairs. Hope that's okay with you guys.

Classy. We make our way to the library, where Mehra Milo and some other important dude are hanging out.

He basically rambles the fuck on about the Nerevarine. Seven curses, some ring enchanted to kill anyone who's not Nerevar, stuff about the Dissident Priests. Bluh bluh bluh horrible secrets.

Kagrenac's Tools is important, though.

Kagrenac's Tools posted:

Beneath Red Mountain, Dwemer miners discovered a great magical stone. By diverse methods, Lord Kagrenac, High Priest and Magecrafter of the ancient Dwemer, determined that this magical stone was the heart of the god Lorkhan, cast here in the Dawn Era as a punishment for his mischief in creating the mortal world. Determined to use its divine powers to create a new god for the exclusive benefit of the Dwemer, Kagrenac forged three great enchanted artifacts, which are called "Kagrenac's Tools." Wraithguard is an enchanted gauntlet to protect its wearer from destruction when tapping the heart's power. Sunder is a enchanted hammer to strike the heart and produce the exact volume and quality of power desired. Keening is an enchanted blade that is used to flay and focus the power that rises from the heart.

When Kagrenac used these tools on the heart in the Battle of Red Mountain, no one knows what happened, but the Dwemer race disappeared entirely from the mortal world. Lord Nerevar and Lord Dagoth retrieved these tools, and didn't know what to do with them. Nerevar asked Dagoth to guard the tools while he went to consult with his counselors, Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil. He left and spoke with his three counselors, and they decided to return together to Red Mountain to decide what to do.

But while Nerevar was gone, Dagoth was tempted and confused by the powers of the tools. When Nerevar and the counselors arrived, he refused to give up the tools, claiming he had sworn to Nerevar to protect them. Then Dagoth fought with Nerevar and the counselors, and was mortally wounded and driven off, and the tools were recovered.

Then Nerevar and his counselors decided to take the tools for safekeeping. They all swore a great oath never to use the tools, but after Nerevar's death, Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil yielded to temptation. They took these tools themselves and went to Lorkhan's heart buried beneath Red Mountain, and gave themselves divine powers.

But Dagoth had not died. We don't know what happened, but this is what we believe. His experiments with Kagrenac's Tools had joined him to the heart's divine nature in some way, so that he learned to draw power directly from the heart.

We conjecture that Dagoth Ur, driven by anger and greed, used the heart without caution and restraint, and, as a result, he has become terribly powerful, and terribly mad. But the Tribunal showed great care and restraint in their use of the tools, and so they were not driven mad, and they did many good things. Nonetheless, the Tribunal, too, appear to heave been corrupted by the heart's power, though more subtly.

Kagrenac's Tools are cursed. Stealing power from the heart of a god is a terrible folly, and fated to disaster. The Tribunal is losing its battle to control the power of the heart. They are sustained by the same tainted power that drives Dagoth Ur mad. They grow weak, and cannot protect us from Dagoth Ur. But even if they could, would we be wise to worship gods such as these? They conceal the truth from us out of shame. They persecute the Nerevarine and the Dissident priests out of shame, when they should be welcoming them and enlisting their aid against Dagoth Ur.

The Tribunal have done much good for Morrowind and the Dunmer. But they succumbed to the temptation of Kagrenac's Tools, and though these tools once may have seemed the instruments of salvation, now they must be seen as instruments of doom.

So...wow. That's pretty bad. Not only is Dagoth Ur still alive, but the Tribunal are ruling with stolen god-power.

~~After being told by the game to go in a reasonable manner~~ So I googled that shit and determined that I better tell the Urshilaku Ashlanders about this.