I collected Viree under the gildergreen tree and I brought her along to start killing bandits. I couldn't find Canary nor did I think she wanted to bounty hunt. Which left , Viree, and Philip the horse. Viree was holding my waist as I we traveled to the Silent Moons Camp first.
I aksed, "Viree, so you hadn't ntioned what happened at the companions. You speak with Kodlak?"
Viree shivered, "Unfortunately yes, he told a lot. However he told I couldn't be accepted or even trained. I don't bla him though, he explained how he disliked the gift, well he called it a curse. Anyway accepting or teaching strays was less than ideal to them."
I raised an eyebrow, he actually said he didn't like the gift to an outsider? Viree continued, "A guy nad Vilkas was also there. He said that they don't mind sharing so secrets about the curse and a potential cure they are researching. However truth be told I don't think I want to be cured just yet."
That made so sense, from Viree's perspective the cure itself was tied to her father's madness and her imprisonnt. I had even promised a cure if she ever wanted it. I assu that was part of the reason she also refused their possible cure. Even though I knew they were one and the sa.
I pulled on Philip's reigns, "Slow down girl. The camp is just ahead, its those ruins. They shouldn't see us from here, but best to be safe and stop now."
I looked at Viree, "Did you just talk to those two?"
Viree clicked her tongue, "No, I wish it was just those two. A woman nad Aela and a man nad Skjor. They also called a stray and said they could sll . Warned of a Silver hand, but that Skjor guy. He slled like, well... Hmmm, like my prison actually."
I paused, that was interesting. "Why would he sll like that?"
I an Skjor would die, but I doubted Viree was slling sothing like that. "He and Aela embrace the 'gift' wholeheartedly. Maybe he embraces it little too much and has devoured soone?"
Viree nodded, "Maybe, Aela had a similar sll to ."
I looked at Viree, "To you? As in she slled like you."
Viree paused, "Ah, yes? Let's get off this subject. I'd rather you not invade more personal space. You already have a harness to ride after all. Wait... That sounds wrong."
I laughed, "Its whatever, I'm gonna try and pick them off with my bow."
Viree stopped in her tracks and stared at , "Let get a little closer than. You don't have great accuracy and if they start firing at us I would prefer the ability to get close to them."
I frowned, "I can hit them."
I pulled out my bow and drew an arrow. Viree made her way to the side of the ruins still crouching. I fired my arrow and it flew straight, until it wasn't high enough. Instead of hitting one of the bandits in the head it pierced straight through the pot of soup he was cooking. He yelped, "My Soup!"
Viree was already on the move so I fired two more arrows. The second missed him to the right and he began to draw his won bow. Finally though the third arrow hit him in the knee. I flinched stumbled and fell down the large stone stair case that made up 70% of the ruins.
With a sigh I began running for the stairs. Viree clubbed one Bandit in the head and a third ran at her with a battle axe. I warped the stairs with magic and the staircase vanished beneath him becoming a slide. He slipped down towards and I stabbed him in the chest with Dawnbreaker.
I saw a bandit at the top of the ruins. Calling out to Viree I ducked out of the way. "Mage!"
I heard her duck out of the way as a firebolt zood past us. I switched magics, "Go my child."
A flaming wolf was brought into existence and instantly recognized its enemy. It launched to the mage and I summoned a normal familiar to follow after the exploding wolf. The first summon exploded against the mages Ward and they scread out. "I'll kill you for killing my friends."
His chatter didn't last long as my second familiar jumped onto his arm and started biting down. Viree followed the familiar with Pendulum and slamd down onto the Mages skull. She turned back to and gave a thumbs up.
I heard a groan and i turned to see the guy I shot with an arrow waking up. I shrugged and stabbed him in the stomach. A new hole in his stomach stopped him from moving and I called back to Viree as I walked up the stairs. "So this is the ho of the Lunar Forge. You feel anything special about this place as a creature of the night?"
Viree shrugged, "No, not really actually it seems pretty la."
I brushed her off and pointed back towards Philip. "Could you kindly get the horse."
Philip was already trotting over, but it gave Viree sothing to do. She shrugged, but I know she would've just sat down on the steps. I paused, "And set up camp, we are sleeping here tonight."
She clicked her tongue, and argued. "But its still 5 hours till dusk!"
I shrugged and entered the encased room at the top of the ruins. I thought this place lacked a roof that was how the moon shined down. However where I thought he forge was closed off and almost buried in the mountain and snow. "I wonder if the forge even works."
I smiled as I saw a full forge with several ingredients left around. I paused though the room was rather bright... "That isn't right."
I looked up to the sky, a very cloudy sky, but it was the sky. I walked around the circular room and existed the ruins and looked back at the room with the forge. I frowned, "Now that isn't right at all." The roof the forge was buried, and even if snow and rocks didn't cover it I was pretty sure it was enclosed.
I ran back to the forge and stared up into the sky. I frowned, it wasn't the sa sky. Perhaps I should've left a bandit alive? Ask them about it? Outside the forge room the sky wasn't cloudy at all. However they sky that was revealed in the forge room was cloudy, close to rain clouds.
I accepted the only logical answer this forge was sohow connected to Oblivion. My best guess, it was connected to Hircine's realm and that sky was the one inside his realm. As his plane of Oblivion had a normal day night cycle that resembled the one on Nirn.
Was this natural lore? or was it sothing filled in? I shook my head at the questions. I hoped to understand how the lunar enchantnts worked. I see now though it was unlikely I would fully understanding it without Hircine's help.
I took out Hircine's ring, and debated about testing it. Hircine was a decent daedric prince, simple in his thods and always fair. Why would he create a forge like this? or Why would he let his followers build the forge?
I sighed and finally just inspected the forge. The bellows were new, handcrafted recently. I dipped a finger in the quenching water. Licking it my face soured, it was a charcoal salt mix. An average blend really. I would need to dump it out, scrub it and refill it.
I looked at the forge and grunted. The stones were so kind of grey marble actually. It was hard to tell, but runes were also carved along the top. Other than that, the forge was rather plain. I looked around and found four books. The first was light armor forging, which I already read actually.
The second was the notes on the lunar forge. It was written by soone other than those bandits. Since the third book just called Lunar weapons was written in a different hand-writing. It was also more recent as the book was open and ink was fresh on the paper. I picked up the ink and looked it over.
Basic writing ink, the bandit mage was a scholar, but not a lawful citizen. So this ink was likely just so junk they stole and used. Their pen was a rough pheasant feather. aning it was likely taken off a dinner plate. Most pens sold by rchants are waxed to prevent damage.
I picked up the last book and looked it over. It was a leather bound note book that was used to balance a wobbly leg of a grindstone. I could see why they used it though the note book was in so other language. I looked at the three books and tossed the light armor forging behind and picked up the lunar weapons book written by the bandit.
It was suspected knowledge, mostly the bandit doing tests to confirm the power of the forge. It seems we interrupted them testing armor enchantnts. Which would explain the light armor forging. It would also explain the books na in the UI. They only had notes on the lunar weapons so it was just about the lunar weapons.
With nothing be useful I picked up Notes on the Lunar Forge. I paused though as I received a level up. My smithing skill increased, and I even received one perk point.
I pulled open my Skill Trees in response. I couldn't put more perk points in while awake, however I could now look at legend perks of the smithing tree. I stopped though and my expression soured. It seems I needed so sleep.
The legend perks of the smithing tree were 5 in total. One was for weapons, one was for light armor, a twin for heavy armor, the fourth being a perk for accessories. While the last... I stared at it's suggestion. Personal creations, a perk point for personal designs and creativity.
What's worse was they scaled from 1-100. To max out the smithing legendary perk points I need 500 perk points. Thankfully it didn't take long for to learn that it had a second thod. Experience, pure experience. Clicking on the perk points revealed several experience bars.
The one with the greatest experience was swords. I rubbed my head at the implication. I had mass produced iron, steel and imperial swords. So I had a ton of experience in forging them. The experience number showed 671, which told the perk point I received was likely for having 500 experience in forging a type of item.
That was good, it ant I could obtain so perk points by grinding out forging things. However, the implications were deadly just as well. Swords, Axes, Maces, it didn't stop at those. It listed, Sickles, Hamrs, Daggers. It was worse than that though as each of those were split up more. I had experience in forging short swords. Swords broke down into, short swords, long swords, Scimitars, Claymores, and even sothing called a Hamberge.
I sat down on the wobbly grindstone and sighed. Thinking for a second I looked up in the sky. The false sky. I picked up Notes on the Lunar Forge once more to read the rest. I stopped due to the level up, I shouldn't have distracted myself.
The book went into detail about the forge. Such as smoke from the forge rises up into the sky and can crest the opening. However if one were to climb up to the ceiling they could touch the sky, or in reality touch the ceiling of the room. Which ant it wasn't an oblivion gate. More like a window into oblivion. Living creatures couldn't cross over, but other things might.
I picked up the light armor forging book once more and threw it at the sky and over the crest of the ceiling. It went up and over, but the mont it crossed the crest it bounced off an invisible wall. Which ant things could go up, but not out. That made so more sense and showed it was much closer to a window than anything else.
I looked back down at the Notes and read silently. The book listed the enchantnt as vampiric in nature, and yet the weapons I knew of caused burning. No in fact I could pick up a lunar iron axe right now and see it caused burning while the moons are out. I tapped my finger on the page of the book in thought.
Soone other than the bandit wrote this first book. I got up with a grin, I knew exactly how to confirm the truth. My affection for Farengar raised a little. My hands glowed with a beige light and I casted it over the book. A second later the beige magic shifted in color. Farengar explained the magic to when he taught it. The shift to a white ant the book was less than 100 years old.
I casted the spell Curate once more, but this ti on the forge itself. The magic shifted in color and my eyes went wide. The color beca violet, which ant the longest period of ti the spell Curate could check for. The only other color being black which ant too old to date.
That ant the lunar forge was a couple thousand or so years old. If it was that old... I nodded to myself. If it was that old it explained a lot, it was simply forgotten and then overlooked. Unfortunately that ant I could learn much else. I sighed and got to work cleaning the forge. I could've used the skyforge, but forging daedric artifacts in broad daylight seed less than ideal.
I had prepared Fire, Frost, and Void Salts. Balimund in riften uses Fire Salts in his forge. I planned to use that idea, but more thought out. I also prepared several additional items I managed to weasel out of Arcadia. A daedra heart for obvious reason. So Glowing Mushrooms since they could fortify destruction and smithing. Spriggan Sap for much of the sa reasons of the Glowing mushrooms. Finally I prepared Vampire Dust, it didn't help in smithing or anything, but for what I plan to do it might help.
With everything laid out breathed out a sigh. With my smithing skill at 100 I need to go to sleep and place a perk point into the final smithing perk. I cracked my neck though and walked out of the forge room.
Viree looked up at , "So what's up? You discover whatever you wanted?"
I nodded, "Less about discover and more about I needed a good forge that was away from people. This forge gets stronger at night specifically though so it works better than other forges in Whiterun."
Viree nodded, "Well, I began making so new soup. You put a hole in the previous cooking pot here so..."
I stared at her, "I'm gonna go to sleep. Only for an hour or so. If I don't wake up kindly wake up."
Viree nodded and I pulled out a sleeping bag. Laying it down I relaxed, it would be a quick in and out of the dream world. I couldn't stay long to craft spells even though I had new spells to mix. I closed my eyes as I heard Viree stir her soup.
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