JoS/Henriette/13th Journal - Prophecy

Second Seed, 8th, 4E 202

We made it to the Ancestral Glade, a place every bit as pretty as I expected it to be. there I completed the ritual to read the Scrolls. It was a little scary, but also just about the most amazing thing I've ever experienced. The way its vast knowledge flowed into my head cannot be described in words. When it was all over, I knew where we had to go. I… I can't even explain how. I just knew.

That's when trouble found us. We had been followed by the Dawnguard. How careless could we have been to not notice them?

I have a feeling that our goals regarding what we're planning align with them more than they align with Harkon considering that we want to stop the prophecy from happening as well, but even if we had tried to explain that, they likely wouldn't have listened. They just wanted to kill us… I think? It's hard to say. They might've wanted to capture me alive as well. Maybe they don't know how to initiate the ritual themselves? Who knows? Well, whatever the case may be, we will never know.

It was a dragged-out fight. We were outnumbered from the start and our enemy had the high ground. The glade was shaped kind of like a bowl and we were at the bottom, you know. I had a feeling they had sent their best against us. It could be why they're been so careful of attacking us as of late. In the past I mentioned it in passing as a joke, but maybe they really are a little scared of us.

When there was only one of them left, the only survivor tried escape. We were able to stop her, mostly thanks to Serana's frost magic. She probably thought I was going to torture her, take her alive, turn her into a thrall or something, but I just wanted to speak with her. I had a message I wanted to rely to Isran.

"Relax", I said. We don't want to fight them, we don't need to, and they don't need to fight us either. I tried to tell her that I've got no interest in trying to plunge the world into darkness, nor has any of my friends, or many of the other Vampires either. We're simply looking to collect the tools for completing the prophecy so we can stop it from happening.

It was clear that she didn't know everything I was talking about, or that she even believed me, but in the end, Serana told her that it doesn't matter and that we will not hesitate to kill them if they stand in our way. I told her that there are many Vampires who think differently from us, and if the Dawnguard wants to hunt those clans, fine, but they shouldn't concern themselves with us. We just want to exist in this world in peace. If, however they choose otherwise and group us together with all other Vampires, we might just have to fight back and seek to eradicate them in our interest of survival. I sincerely hope it doesn't come to it.

"Consider this our final warning", I said, as I handed her a potion and left with my friends.

So anyway, where will be going? Well, the place is called Darkfall Cave. It's somewhere towards the border with High Rock, directly to the west from Dragon Bridge. Despite the vision I saw, I still don't know fully exactly what we will discover there besides the bow. Time will tell.

Second Seed, 11th, 4E 202

So, we did some final preparation before embarking on our long journey, and we found the cave rather easily. There haven't been too many dangers in our way yet, just some pesky spiders and trolls, but as we delve deeper, that thing will change. Auriel's Bow isn't merely a treasure that's locked away in here in some kind of container. To obtain it, we must do so much more than just a little bit of tomb raiding.

We actually met an Elf here, a Snow Elf called Gelebor. He knew that we were coming for the bow. No, wait, that's phrasing it badly… He knew that's what we were there for as soon as he saw us. He didn't actually anticipate us coming. Apparently, nobody ever comes to this cave for any other reason, and he's been here presumably for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Man, I do not envy him. So anyway, he's a Falmer, an ancient kind, a more sophisticated one, not like those twisted blind… Things. For starters, he actually looks like a proper Elf, he's got a proper posture and all that stuff, and he's not blind either. I never knew they used to have some kind of connection… It was an interesting history lesson, that's for sure. I won't go into much detail about that though. He along with his brother are probably the last true representatives of their race.

Ahead of lies perhaps the most well-preserved part of the ancient kingdom of Snow Elves, a chantry devoted to their god Auri-El, as they call him. It's weird how different cultures have different interpretations for the same Gods. I mean, I call him Akatosh, and Greybeards said that my gift of Dragon Blood is a gift from Akatosh. If I told it to this dude, something tells me that he wouldn't believe that… Or maybe he would have some other explanation for that. Aedra are confusing sometimes, not gonna lie… But I digress.

In order to reach the Inner Sanctum of this chantry, the place where the Bow is located, we must follow some kind of pilgrim's path and fill some old jug with water from a bunch of way shrines scattered along the way. There's apparently no other way to go about this. Gelebor also says that we have to kill his brother Vyrthur, who's been corrupted by the blind Falmer, or as he likes to call them, the Betrayed. That's the only way we can restore the way shrine located within the Inner Sanctum and get our hands on the bow. He also warned us that many have tried to complete this task over the years and that none have passed. It might very well be that we're going to be no different, but… If we fail here, at least we know we will fall along with the prophecy… I hope. The chantry is pretty huge, and we have to be well prepared to spend nights and days there, maybe even better part of a week.

To make a more personal observation, since we're dealing with Falmer, we're probably going to be dealing with Charus as well. They tend to walk hand in hand… I have pretty much already accepted that we're going to be raped ahead. It's strange, but somehow accepting it makes it a little bit easier.

Second Seed, 12th, 4E 202

We had entered Falmer's realm, and we were fighting on their battlefield on their terms. Ahead of us laid a long passage of pitch-black darkness, with only mushrooms and strange tube-like organisms providing light from their eerie glow. We were forced to tap into quite a bit of blood magic to sustain our predator's vision, but at times even that didn't feel like enough. It's a good thing I can also detect lifeforms using the power of my Voice, and I didn't even have to shout.

And just as I predicted, we were faced with Charus as well, as became apparent from the very beginning. We didn't even get through the first group of bugs without one of us getting caught and raped by the tentacles. It ended up being Sofia.

Serana hasn't been with us on many adventures, so she hasn't experienced as much of this as we have. She was a little disgusted by sight of what these Charus are capable of. She was worried that it might happen to her as well, to which I simply said, it will, and that's a promise. She was quiet for a long while after that.

Oh, but that was just the first group of enemies we were up against. We encountered a LOT more.

Then, it happened again, and the third time, and then the fourth. Every single time it was Sofia. Forgive my dark sense of humor, but seriously, it would've been funny how it ended up being her all the time if she wasn't being brutally raped! The spit of the Charus that got on her must be attracting tentacles to attack her. We couldn't even help her out when the fourth set of tentacles raped her. They went all the way and filled her with their foul seed.

I could just tell that she was so done at that point. Can't blame her, we haven't even made it to the first shrine yet.

Luckily, it didn't take much more time to finally found one… Four left to go. We also found the way out from the caves, so we can actually get outside now. Sun is rising soon though, and we've had a long day, so we're going to hunt some fresh game and call it quits for now. We need rest. Badly. There are a lot of deer here, so we won't be getting hungry, that's for sure.

Second Seed, 13th, 4E 202

Serana couldn't have said it the better. It's like a whole another world. It reminds Skyrim only in its coldness and tall mountain peaks surrounding us, and I guess trees are more or less the same, but flowers and animals are quite different here. They've been isolated from the other parts of Skyrim for so long, and ancient elven ruins dot the landscape. This is the Forgotten Vale. I never knew such a beautiful place existed so close to my home.

We did find two more of the way shrines, but that was about as far as we progressed this night. I must say though, I didn't expect us to find three out of five so quickly, not after Gelebor told us that this place is massive. We also found some ancient book that Urag might be interested in, maybe even pay good money for. Then, we found a giant with a snow-white fur native to this valley. It would've been a tough foe to meet face to face, not gonna lie, but at the same time, the lumbering oaf made for great target practice.

On its corpse we found a strange crystal. It wasn't a natural gemstone or anything, it has been artificially created, that much we're sure about. We don't know what kind of purpose it serves, but we're going to hold onto it. If nothing else, it's an interesting treasure. I wonder if it's worth anything to a collector.

On a final note, we didn't expect it to be this cold out here. Our Vampiric blood offers us some resistance from the cold, so we know we won't freeze to death or anything, but it's not plausible to continue our journey like this. I'm going to craft us some warm fur armor as soon as we get back to the cave. Those Sabercats provided us with lots of it, and I have no doubt that the following night will be much easier on us when we have proper clothes for this chilling weather.

Second Seed, 14th, 4E 202

New day, or rather, new night was ahead of us. We continued our journey, this time up the mountain. We did find the fourth waypoint and then some, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, as we weren't actually able to get to it yet. Why won't I share a story for you about how we nearly died?

Dragons, that's why. Yes, that's a plural. There were two of them, at the same time. It was on top of a large, frozen lake on a plateau. One of them was kind of weak and we were able to kill him quickly, but when we were faced with only one, things started going south really quickly. It was his last stand.

First, giant fireballs summoned by his voice started raining down on us. His breath was also strong, and he just wouldn't land to fight us on equal ground. I think he was scared, or perhaps just fighting smart. There's a fine line between the two. It proved out to be too much of a task for us, so we ran, and FAST. We weren't willing to die there.

We were able to find refuge in a nearby cave that was populated by an ice giant. Well, fighting a giant is easier than fighting a dragon that can literally burn you alive in seconds! It also happened to have another one of those strange gemstones on it.

I'm not sure if the dragon followed us or if it knows were hiding here, but we're a little afraid of finding out. We will have a chance to fight it later, but we have to be able to surprise it somehow…

Second Seed, 14th, 4E 202

Now the second of these two dragons lies dead. It wasn't an easy fight even with us being able to ambush it, but we had the edge we needed to defeat him.

When we exited the Ice Giant's cave, we also found something nearby. There was some kind of strange ruin, or a machine… Something powered by magic, something that was still operational. We didn't even know this until we figured out that the two large crystals we found could be used to operate it. With it, portals to different parts of the vale can be accessed. They must've been used by Snow Elves as some kinds of treasure rooms or guarding posts or something, as one of them was high up overlooking parts of the cave we had previously visited, while other one actually led inside some larger elven ruin. There we found heaps of treasure; gems, gold, ancient weaponry…

This place is full of riches!

Anyway, it also proved to be an adequate resting place. What's not to love? It's warm, it's safer than a cave, and it's even spacious. We don't have much reason to continue our travel with the sunrise fast approaching, so we will be resting here. We did go outside just to get the water we need from the way shrine. Not too many wind animals up here, but luckily we have some food left from yesterday.

I think Sofia's little bastard children are due soon. She's getting a little restless because of that. Maybe I should comfort her? Serana isn't too interested in that, but she doesn't mind us having that kind of relationship, I think… Maybe she's just embarrassed to admit that she secretly wants to join in. Who knows, she could be gayer than me and Sofia combined! Ahaha, probably not… Although that would be kind of hot.

Second Seed, 15th, 4E 202

Our way to the last way shrine is not yet complete, and it might not complete in a long while. Before us lies a whole lot of fallen enemies as well as enemies we simply gave up on, along with a whole lot of bad memories all of us would rather forget. Ahead of us though might lie something much worse.

For all intents and purposes, it seemed like a kind of landscape I would excel in. Our enemy were mostly Falmer as well as winged Charus, but these guys weren't living underground. It was a huge canyon traversing from the frozen lake towards south-west. There were a lot of tall ledges, a lot of bridge and a whole lot of distance between us. I done most of the job at the beginning. I must say, I've gotten excellent at aiming. I don't hit every time, but most people wouldn't be able to hit a single arrow on a moving target from as far back as I did. Problems only started when we had to get up close and personal with our opponents.

It isn't easy to move here. As I said, this is a canyon. There's a lot of ice everywhere and falling down doesn't sound attractive. Falmer took advantage of this to corner us and outnumber us. There were so many of them, over a dozen, some of them even attacking from away our arms reach. We never had a chance against all of them. They wore us down, their poison started tiring us, and they submit us. Blindfolded, tied up and gagged, they dragged us to some cave… A cave where we've been ever since. It was the first time any of us had ever lost to these creatures. It has always been the Charus. Now though, even though we're at our strongest, stronger than we've ever been before, we all fell so easily.

They started by destroying our armor and stealing our weapons. We lost everything to them, and there's no doubt they've emptied the jug out as well. Refilling it isn't going to be a problem anymore, at least compared to this… Who knows if we're ever going to be able to get all of our stuff back. Will we recover even half of our stuff?

They started by gangraping us for hours. It was a proper gangbang. Even though there were three of us girls, they still felt like an endless horde. They had us surrounded, they always had a new rapist lined up waiting for the previous one to finish toying with us. They were just constantly on top of us and offered us no rest. There was always at least one having their way with us, sometimes even two. It's hard to even tell how long they used us. We were blindfolded for large parts of the time and even after they fell from our eyes, we still couldn't even see well in the darkness.

When they were satisfied and done raping us, they threw us in a cage together with their pets Charus, and we were too tired to do anything to defend ourselves anymore. A hive locked behind traps and bars, walls made of spikes and bones was set to be our prison. Our purpose here is to serve as their cattle along with their Charus so they can breed more of them, more eggs, more meat for consumption and more chitin for weapons and armor. At times the bugs themselves mounted us, at times it was just the tentacles entangled to our limbs. They let us go pretty quickly after filling us all with their eggs, so at least they're easy to satisfy. Our Blood magic is useless against them, so are our fangs and my voice. And without our weapons… What can we do?

Second Seed, 16th, 4E 202

There isn't really any way for us to get out of here, at least not from the inside anyway. We've looked everywhere desperately, tried to find any possible chance at exit, but it's completely impossible. The door can only be opened by the Falmer from the outside, and that hasn't happened for the entire duration of the time we've been here. The Charus have done us for multiple rounds during that time too, and we're already feeling so defeated and so tired… My legs, my bloated stomach… I barely feel like I can stand. I couldn't run away even if I tried.

It's hopeless, seriously hopeless for us.

There has to be some way out, there just has to be. I refuse to believe this is it for us.

Second Seed, 17th, 4E 202

After roughly two days of captivity, the first piece of the puzzle falls into place. It's a small sign of hope, but it's at least something… There's a way for us to get out from this mess.

The Falmer come to check on us once in a while, mostly to collect eggs. When they do, they usually take one of us for a ride as well. My time was actually first, while Serana and Sofia were left behind. I was much more willing of a participant than last time around, not only because I didn't want to anger my overlords, but also because I have to be on lookout for clues about how to escape this place.

It probably doesn't sound convincing considering that I'm enslaved, but I can tell, Falmer aren't the strongest slavers I've faced. They are very prominent with using poisons and other elixirs, but in many other ways they're subpar. Sure, they've got more than enough muscle in their arms to outpower any of us, but it's not a coincidence that we've avoided getting raped by them up until now. I'm also convinced that we can use their blindness to our advantage. We just have to be very quiet when we eventually attempt our escape, maybe with an exception of me.

My current plan is that we might be able to use my voice against them, perhaps as a distraction in addition to using it as a weapon. Our Vampiric powers are also effective against the Falmer… Just not these Charus we're trapped with most of the time. We might need to get our hands on their weapons somehow, but we don't know where our items are being held. We don't even know how large this cave truly is…

There are still clues for us to observe. We can't strike against our slavers yet. I know these creatures to be smarter than us, so I'm sure we can figure something out, whenever it's my voice, or perhaps even transformation into a Vampire Lord.

Second Seed, 19th, 4E 202

We might've acted a little hastily, but it did work out in the end. We made it back outside, but we're taken few major steps back, and we've got no weapons or armor of our own, just some daggers and swords we looted from the Falmer. We lost Initiate's Ewer as well, so we definitely have to be going back there in order to complete this journey by refilling it again, but that's for when we've eventually recovered.

It happened when they came for one of us. It had to be someone else other than me, and it was Sofia this time. I used my Voice, it proved to be just as effective of a weapon as I predicted. Falmer rely too much on their ears, and now their ears were ringing in pain. Serana was able to get to one of the Falmer who was dragging Sofia away and bit its neck. I snatched its weapon, a sword, and attacked the other slaver. A powerful surprise attack was able to take its life instantly. There were two more, but at this point, we had alerted all of them. We had to run and fast.

We had a very good idea of where the entrance to this place is, and we headed there. It led to the bottom of the canyon, where liquid water filled its cavities and vegetation was able to grow. We were able to hide our presence midst the flowing water. They were looking for us, but we were careful enough to not get noticed. It's a good thing their restraints were all primitive ropes and such, and not made out of metal and leather like some of the more problematic items are. They made no noise either and could be struggled out of easily.

Now, we're back in the woods where it's at least a little bit safer. Like I said, we're stark naked, so obviously we're freezing, and our weapons are limited, but we can gather our strength and rebuild.

Second Seed, 20th, 4E 202

The Falmer came for us. It was only a small scouting party though, and we saw them coming. We've got even more weapons now, but this still isn't enough. Our bodies have recovered well from the abuse we took though, and we were even able to hunt some fur and leather from the wilds. We can do this, we're sure we can.

Besides, I actually forgot about something crucial… We might not have extra weapons in our arsenal, but we do have an ally we could rely on. I'm sure Durnehviir would hate to see me in this state considering that I'm the one who defeated him, but at the same time, he owes me, and he will owe me a little more if I grant his wish and let him fly the skies of Tamriel again. I'm sure he would appreciate having some fun killing some Falmer for us as well…

Yes, that sounds like a cunning plan. No way those disgusting blind creatures stand a chance against him…

He can only maintain his presence in Tamriel for a short period of time, or so he told me. He's still bound to the Soul Cairn, so we might really only have one chance. My plan is to somehow attract the attention of the Falmer and drag them away from their caves so that my flying friend can have fun with them. I have a feeling that it's not going to be too hard. After all, there's no way that those Falmer want to let us slip away from their fingers considering how much they loved having us around.