Kvaasik - Lessons of Coldharbour

1 - The Rise of Thras
2 - The Cold Front
3 - Change in Wardrobe
4 - The Unsinkable City
5 - An Unlikely Patron
6 - The Purring Liar
7 - The Dismantling Dilemma
8 - The Shade in Sunlight
9 - Varen's Folly
10 - The Soul Siphon
11 - The Astral Escapade
12 - His Master's Student
13 - The Graveyard in the Closet
14 - The Blue Ambush
15 - The Red Redemption
16 - The Liar's End

17 - The Field Work
18 - The Trouble With Taproot
19 - Lessons from Coldharbour
20 - Tower of the Black Worm

The mixture fizzed before me, in the iron shell of the bowl, and released a puff of blue smoke. Perfect. The ingredients were difficult to obtain, but the alchemist (whose name, as I discovered from his notes, was Arevyn) luckily had most of what I needed on hand. The heartblood of the spriggans (the sap from their taproots) and the nirnroot, mixed with a few other choice ingredients, will allow me to liberate my soul energy from its corporeal form and place it into the body of my subject.

Next was the equipment. Lacking proper metals, I had to make do with the dwemer scraps Malkoran had collected, but the soulmeld rod apparatus I created should perform its purpose adequately enough. The Planemeld was an event in the Second Era of Tamrielic history in which Molag Bal attempted (and nearly succeeded) to merge Nirn and Coldharbour, but was stopped by a mysterious ‘hero’. A similar technology to what the God of Schemes used to merge the two planes could be used to merge two souls, or in this case, my soul and the nonexistent soul of my dead subject.

It took time to create the two dwemer alloy rods, but when they were in place and ready to be activated, it was then time to drink the tincture. I am taking a risk doing so, but my calculations prove that it should work. I first remove my ring, returning to my natural Sload form to avoid any alchemical complications, then move opposite the subject’s body, one rod to the left of me and the other to the right of the subject. I observed the dark, viscous liquid, confirming that I should take the risk to quaff down the mixture. The results of this experiment could be crucial for the Sload Conquest; I had little choice but to choke it down. The taste was awfully bizarre, with hints of horker, snowberry, buttered toast, roasted apple, and clam chowder, despite containing none of these ingredients. I closed my eyes, letting the arcane taste of the solution and the energy of the soulmeld rods take hold, before opening my eyes once more.

I was several feet from where I stood moments before, and I felt cold stone beneath me. My head ached, but I had the sense to look at my hands to see if the experiment had worked. Sure enough, my hands were of the pale hue of a Nord, proving my experiment a success. But something was wrong. I searched around for my body, which should have been left in dormancy. No such object appeared in my vision, and I remembered when Rajhin had stolen my body from me. I could not let this thing happen once more; wandering this wretched place for eternity is a dreadful afterlife compared to joining Mannimarco upon our death, as all Sload hope to.

Suddenly, the body I occupied dissolved to ashes and something incredibly peculiar happened. Not only was my spirit removed from the remains, but so was the entirety of my Sload body. It had not been destroyed, but had been stored instead. This experiment proved much more successful than I could have hoped! Not only had my soul been merged with the corpse, but so was my corporeal form! This has infinitely more uses than a soulmeld apparatus, as I had intended to build. So many more opportunities; imagine a Sload imposter at the head of every army, every guild, every city. Unfortunately, while the energy from the soulmeld rods would have been enough to merge two souls, it was not sufficient to merge two bodies and keep the corpse intact. I must contact S’Gast at once.

I found the polwygle candle hidden deep in my knapsack, among the Black Star and my remaining septims. It had survived many things, including all of Rajhin’s exploits while he occupied my body (I still shudder at those memories). Eagerly, I lit the wick with a flame spell, and thick smoke immediately rose from the ivory-colored candle. The modest glow quickly became a blazing butterfly, just a glimpse at the power of polwygle flesh. I braced myself for a teleportation spell, hoping that the nausea will not be as hindering as the last time I teleported between continents. Magic warmth wrapped around me like a shawl, and I was gone.

I awoke standing up, this time, rather than swooning dizzily on the ground. I smelled the sweet lagoons of Thras for the first time in seemingly forever, the salt of the sea and the rich aroma of the palms. As I opened my eyes, the bright blue of the Abecean Sea glimmered on the horizon making me angry at the pale Sea of Ghosts for not being as brilliant. I stood on blue-gray stones, the remains of an Ayleid ruin, a natural conduit of energy.

S’Gast strode towards me. He still wore his red ceremonial robes, one of the few garments Sload wear. In guttural Sloadish, he bellowed “Kial vi revenis tiel frue?” I answered him, telling him that I had uncovered something important. But there was no point in wasting words, as the Sload have a much better way of transferring information. S’Gast raised his arms towards me and began to chant, a cerulean glow ebbing and flowing from his hands like the swelling tide. The light reached me, and an intense pain split my head like a cleaver. This was the pain of memories being drawn out and replicated, allowing S’Gast to see my exploits and my experiments through my eyes. When the pain eased, and the marine light retreated, S’Gast seemed to give me a nod of approval. He opened his mouth, and, to my surprise, he did not speak Sloadish.

“Good…very. Very good. To Skyrim…return. Return to Skyrim, continue…with your experiments. With this.” He stretched his palm outwards, and a human legbone immediately appeared in his hand. I recognized the instrument from tales and legends, but I never thought I would see it firsthand. It was a legbone, including the tibia, the fibula, and the femur, but also held a skull with bony human hands (including the carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges) at one end. The infamous Staff of Worms, crafted and wielded by the God of Worms himself, Mannimarco. I graciously accepted the gift, and knew what S’Gast would ask me next. “Find…a headquarters. The candle, light it…when you get there. Tower of Dawn…in Dawnstar. Go, for the Conquest.”

Feeling the weight of the Staff in my hands, I understood that S’Gast trusted me to bring triumph. As magic enveloped me again to return me to Meridia’s Temple, I knew one thing, one very important thing:

The Sload Conquest has begun.