User blog:Psychomantis108/Daggerfall: Chapter 18 - Finding The King of Worms

The blistering winds of the Dragontail Mountains fought furiously against Agatha and her one-eyed companion as they made their ascent up it. Agatha was at least fortunate enough to have a stick, to support herself, though Dodger did have the advantage of being more agile and thus being able to stop herself from falling.

If the information they had received from Morgiah was good, the Scourg Barrow was just north of where they were, at the top of this steep hill. Low and behold, it actually was...

There, a few feet away, standing out in the distance, stood Scourg Barrow. A four legged Collossus that stood at the heart of the blinding white. Dodger grunted, several times as she reached the summit, scuffing her boot on a rock as she scrambled to the very top.

"Urgh... Fucking mountains..." She scowled, though Agatha knew that this was, unfortunately not a mountain. She kept that piece of information to herself though as she didn't want to be punched in the face...

It was then that Dodger looked up, somewhat confused. There before them both, stood the small castle. Much like Queen Nulfaga's, it was a small, isolated fortress, out in the wilds. Agatha wondered why there were so many out here. Did her ancestors really love wasting building materials, this much?

Both Agatha and Dodger approached the nearest leg, the leg itself was as big as the inn that they were staying in, back in Daggerfall. It's grey stone and rather bleak design was rather unsettling in comparison as there was nothing inviting about it.

They slowly paced around it, looking for the entrance and found it, standing at the center of the large-monstrous building. A rather... small, square building that looked inferior to the rest of the castle.

Dodger got her bow ready, putting an enchanted arrow, that, if that merchant wasn't full of shit, would explode on impact. Agatha, knowing that her back was safe, kicked the door down and stepped inside, getting her spells at the ready.

The two of them stepped inside, noticing that the room was void of life or undead abominations, it was merely a couple of stone coffins, some open, the rest shut.

There was no sign of any other sort of a way out...

"Hmm... Dead End already?" Dodger asked, seeming somewhat confused, it didn't make sense for that to be the case...

"No, the real entrance must be hidden in one of the tombs..." Agatha suggested, looking around at them.

"Have a look around."

With that, she stepped on over to the nearest tomb and pushed against the lid, it took quite a bit of force but she eventually got it moving, with a rather annoying grinding sound as the tomb's lid was pushed across the casket and eventually came crashing down to the floor.

She peered inside, seeing that it was just a coffin... Gods, she hoped she wasn't wrong about this. She'd look a right tit...

She then lookeda round as she heard a crash, causing Dodger to giggle a little.

"Well, at least this is fun!" She beamed, getting Agatha to shake her head, with a smirk.

"You aren't hard to amuse, are you?" She asked, though she knew this wasn't true. Dodger had an... odd sense of humor. She wasn't easily ammused but would laugh at the strangest of things...

"Alright, next piece of shit casket!" She called, stepping over to the one on the opposite side to the entrance and began pushing. Agatha shook her head and shuffled over ot the second one, pushing as heavily as she could.

"Let's hope that this one can move... A little easier..." She heaved, eventually collapsing as the lid flew off, onto the floor, shattering on impact. This time, however, she noticed that the coffin had no base, in fact it had a rather deep pit inside it.

"Hey, I found it!" Agatha called, just as Dodger smashed her coffin lid on the floor.

"Aww..." The Bosmer sighed, turning back around.

"I was looking forward to smashing that one as well!" She grumbled, shaking her head as she wandered over to it and placed her hands on it, pushing it forward. She wasn't going to leave any survivors, that was for damn sure...

Agatha shook her head, with a sigh as she climbed over it, she dropped down inside the tomb, having to bend her knees on impact.

"Urgh... Quite a high drop Dodge, watch it!"

She then heard a shattering coffin lid, prompting her to shake her head and sigh as she stepped deeper inside.

Agatha readied her staff as she stepped inside, taking a firm grip on it as she readied herself for whatever was waiting for her inside. She noticed how different the floor was on this level, grey and copper tiles spanned out, randomly across the floor, with a raised pedestal at the far end.

Dodger dropped down as well, gently jogging after Agatha as she stepped inside, approaching the raised part of the room, where two hooded women awaited. They wore robes and dark hoods but she could tell that they were women from their body shapes and height…

She then heard two blades clash behind her, prompting her to turn around, with a gasp as she saw Dodger get cut off by two crossed spears, held by two stationary Litches on either side of the doorway.

She immediately cast her gaze onto Dodger, nodding to her to tell her that it was okay before turning back and approaching the pedestal as the two women slowly backed away. Before it, donning a chilling red robe, holding a staff with a golden skull on it, held by the clammy, almost skeletal hands that slipped out of his long sleeves, that were just short of kissing the floor.

He stared out at her, with his glowing blue eyes. Not blue like human eyes, more like small blue lasers that shone in the darkness of his hood…

Agatha froze on the spot, upon seeing him, her hands trembled as they reached for Morgiah’s letter. It would seem that her fear was pleasing to him as he reached out his hand, prompting her to flinch but quickly noticing the letter slip out of her hand and fly across the room to him, hitting his palm with some light force before he unfolded it and quickly read it.

He lowered the letter, dropping it to the ground before reaching inside his robes and drawing another envelope, which he slowly passed to Agatha with a wave of his hand and some telekinesis spell. Agatha wasn’t exactly in the mood to deduce what kind of spell it was, so she assumed that he’d mastered the art at this point…

 "Very good. If you are not rewarded with death by the loyal servants of the Barrow, give this note to Princess Morgiah please." He replied, dropping the note in her hand, she took hold of it, nodding quickly as she stuffed it into her satchel.

 She swallowed, harshly as she gently backed away, eventually turning around and quickly pacing over to the door, where the two Liches defiantly stood before her, spears crossed over to block her path. She glanced over to the one on the right, not that he looked the most dominant as they were the same but still, she had to reach out to one of them. The Lich didn’t even look at her, prompting her to look back to Mannimarco, who was gone.

 Agatha furrowed her brow, seeming somewhat confused before remembering the King of Worm’s final words to her, she gasped and looked up, seeing the Lich’s blade heading straight for her face.