Folly is entering an unmarked portal on the cliffs of Coldharbour. And now I find myself partaking in an insidious game for the lives of three captured mortals, and also for three others who in life made bargains with the Lord of Brutality, and failed, and are now doomed to an eternity of fighting battles upon the Cliffs of Failure.

Necessity oft creates strange alliances, where your allies are just as dangerous as your enemies, one need only look to the Three Banners in Tamriel. To rescue the captured mortals, I will need to ally with one of the disgraced trio.

Angof the Gravesinger, that foul Reachman, leader of the Bloodthorns who I fought in the bowels of Cath Bedraud back in Glenumbra. Now he cuts an almost pitiful figure, seeking not redemption, but escape from damnation. Perhaps nowhere but Oblivion is mortal death seen as such a great prize.

Thallik Wormfather is a name I know only through tavern tale and court rumour. A worm cult leader from Skyrim who is said to have attempted to resurrect a long dead giant. Failure is seems has not blunted this necromancers thirst for power, and whilst I feel he might prove the most powerful ally of the three, he is perhaps the one I trust the least.

And finally the High Kinlady Estre, sister-in-law to the Elf Queen Ayrenn if I recall, and potential usurper to her throne. It’s strange to think now that if in my escape from the Wailing Prison I had fallen into the waters of the Southern Seas instead of those of the Illiac Bay, I might have encountered this Veiled Queen in Summerset, and who knows, perhaps I may even have ended up fighting for her… and yet here now we stand.

Of the three, only Estre shows any concern for the captured mortals, no matter how insincere, and I’ll admit, she has a certain condescending charm that draws me to her. I can’t help feeling however like a sheep allying with a wolf to escape a hungry bear.

S.K