21 Dualahei 835

(Sigurd)
We went further down the cave and came out somewhere in the ruins. Out of sight of the tower.
Still don’t trust it.

We readied on of the houses as a campsite. Then we scouted more towards the palace and the biggest tower. Khajit and Uthemar were up ahead when two banshees attacked them. They hurt us bad, Uthemar went down. I chanced it. They ended up dead for good.
We healed up. Khajit scouted more, he saw a Tarrasque had claimed part of the ruins.
We scouted more and rested.

We went for the tower, most chance of loot. Also the door was open.
We went in and upstairs. On the second floor we saw Claes. He looked dead, just bones. But he was standing and talking to us.
I didn’t trust it.

I searched the room to find loot. But then I thought, Claes is my friend. He told us that a ghost in a secret room in the cellar kept him locked in the tower.
I told Catman, Beastman and my only other friend Davinara that we should help Claes. Everyone must be free, not locked up.

As we walked down Davinara led me out the tower. She said we go outside first. I don’t understand, we have to find the ghost to free my good friend Claes. I explain to Davinara she and him are my only friends and you have to help your friends. Then Claes said it was time I took her out but not kill her. So I beat her. It did not feel right, but I did. She cast a spell and it turns out Claes was right there! I’m so happy! Claes is a really good friend you know. He knows what I do. I beat her more, but she ran off. I’m happy she ran, Davinara is my only other friend. Sometimes when I hurt people, I kill them if they stick around too long. But my good friend Claes knows me too and he must know Davinara too, because she said he was surprised to see her. Maybe he is shy.

(Khajiit)
Uthemar and I are searching the downstairs for a door to the cellar, to look for the ghost who’s supposed to be down there, and who’s keeping Claes bound to this tower. Davinara has escorted Sigurd outside, because we suspect he’s under the control of Claes. I’m not sure what her plan is, because while we were still discussing plans and options, she suddenly stormed off, made promises to Claes and grabbed Sigurd to go downstairs and outside. She’s nice, but too unpredictable and erratic!

While Uthemar and I are investigating a trapdoor we found, Davinara comes running back inside, nose bloodied, followed by Claes and Sigurd - and she is yelling that Sigurd was ordered by Claes to attack her. This stinking undead! I knew we shouldn’t have trusted this situation, this was a horrible plan from the beginning. And what was Davinara thinking, running off with Sigurd all by herself? Time to earn my keep! We attack the evil lich. Davinara goes down during the fight but I am able to get her back up, and Claes flees upstairs. I follow, and after some more fighting (Sigurd and Davinara helped a lot, but Uthemar was kinda useless - always in the way with his fat bear-ass!) the undead surrenders. Good, now we can finally get to the bottom of what the hell is going on.

Claes wants to make a deal: he will say how he knows Davinara, and in return he wants us to let him go. Personally I don’t think it’s a good idea, let’s just search his belongs for clues, but it’s up to Davinara, and she decides to agree. So we all swear to let him go after he gives the information. He gives us a rambling story about how his master and Davinara’s are the same or similar or whatever, it doesn’t make sense to me. Davinara says she has no idea what he is talking about. I knew this stinking creep was just selling us bullshit to get away. And right at that moment, Claes jumps back into the magical circle on the floor and activates it. The basterd! We all jump on him, and I end up making the killing blow. Feels good. We also hear a happy yell from the cellar, so we guess the ghost is now gone as well. We did good! As Sigurd said: “Everyone must be free, not locked up.”

We search the whole tower and find a LOT of money. Like, oh my god SO MUCH GOLD. Should I just leave these powder kegs behind and go back to Inoki in Shadycreek Run? Haha no of course not, this was just the first tower we searched. We’re going to find so much more in these ruins!

We also have a long discussion about what to do with the magical circle on the floor. It’s obviously evil: an undead lich worked on it for hundreds of years to transform it into something that could bring him back to life, and it hurt me like hell. I want to smash it to pieces, Sigurd is down to smash (no surprise there of course), but Uthemar thinks it should be saved because it’s thousands of years old and “can’t be evil”. Are all Elves this daft? Ugh. But sure, whatever, it’s his heritage and all. I’m suuuure this isn’t going to bite us horribly in the end…

At night I dream about the palace next door and imagine the riches we’re definitely going to find there. We’ll be rich! Uthemar can have his Elven relics, everybody will be happy, I’ll be famous and Samir Harrak will eat crow.