The tainted waters of Shada’s Tear are made clean once more… well about as clean as stagnant waters in an ancient underground city full of the rotting corpses of the undead and Nerieds can be.  So it is now possible to cross to the the temple wing of the city, where Shada herself supposedly dwells. The researchers now speculate that the Nedes of the city may well have worshipped Shada even before the Yokudan invasion was drowned in her ‘blessed waters’.

After overcoming undead Nedes, empowered Nerieds, and giant spiders I finally earned the right to challenge the fearsome Neried queen for this lost city. Even then she summons shield maidens and mages in number to her side, her Nedic thralls willingly sacrificing themselves for their queen, first in life, and again in death.

Whilst undoubtedly a powerful being, it is unlikely that this Queen of the Neried is, as as the researchers seem to believe, the same Shada with whom the Nedes made their most imprudent bargain. Most likely ‘Shada’ is now an honorary title passed down through generations to their strongest daughter, or perhaps it is even an hereditary one. Either way, I believe it will not be long before another Queen rises from the waters, and this ancient Nedic city will once again, Weep for Shada.

S.K

The claustrophobic cavern streets of the city district are patrolled by bands of skeletal Nedes and their Neried stewards, who attempt to prevent my trespass into their sunless city with as much force as their osseous frames can muster. It is impressive that any research group might have made it far into these oppressive tunnels, but I was soon to find a survivor of one group who did.

An injured Bosmer tells me of how some of her companions mistakenly drank of the corrupted waters and swiftly succumbed to the curse, turning them, like the undead that roam these streets, into thralls of the Water Spites. Just why one would want to drink of these stagnant green waters in the first place is beyond me. They attacked the Wild Elf and captured another of her companions, taking her deeper into the city.

To rescue her companion I will need to overcome the ancient Nedic pillar puzzles and her bedevilled former colleagues who I fear now are beyond redemption. Only then might I find the daughter of Shada responsible for corrupting the waters of the Shada’s Tear city district.

S.K

This lost Nedic city not only outlasted its builders, but also its conquerors.

The treasure hunters, scholars, antiquarians and Hermaus Mora’s worshipers who excavated this subterranean city have been here in number long before I arrive, but now their progress has hit upon trouble. The large pools and waterways that are a feature of this city are not only occupied by Nerieds singing they eerie vespers, but are also apparently cursed. The first researchers who drank from them quickly became irrational and deluded. They began to believe that their colleagues were in fact invaders from whom they needed to defend the ancient city.

The waters flow through the ruins from the two wings to the east and west, and together they make the main chamber to the north unreachable. The scholars have requested that I enter the two wings to see if it is possible to cleanse the waters from there.

Whilst it may never have been breathtakingly beautiful, the architecture of this ancient Nedic city has a certain ominous character, almost an impiety in every brick. It’s original name is still unknown, as is whether the Nerieds were already here when the city was founded, or if they came after. But what is known is that when the city was under threat of invasion, in desperation its people unwisly turned to the Neried queen Shada for help.

Whenever you bargain from a place of weakness the price is inevitably raised, and for the people of this city is seems the cost of their mortal liberty was to be eternal enslavement to their saviour. Thus the researchers have taken to calling this city ‘Shada’s Tear’.

S.K