Heading down into depths of Graystone Quarry I see no signs of the fog, except perhaps the steam from strange brass pipes that adorn the cavern walls. I do however hear a monotonous chorus of hissing steam, clicking gears, and scuttling metallic limbs. And then in the gloom I began to spot them lit up by the occasional furnace blast. Spiders, Spheres, Sentries, and Centurions, Dwemer automations of every variety. Of course, if one delves deep enough in the mountains of High Rock it is almost inevitable you will eventually uncover a lost Dwemer settlement.

It is of little surprise that the straightforward rural Orsimer hide behind wild conjecture and superstition, few are so brave that they are unaffected by the unexpected. Still, even now knowing what lies ahead in the gloom does little to douse my own smouldering fears.

Eventually as I delve deeper into the caverns I find the high elf allegedly responsible for the miner’s woes… Neramo. I had last met him at the mages guild in Sentinel where he was researching lost Dwemer settlements, I guess he found what he was searching for. I am a little disappointed not to find the enigmatic Vimy with him. He admits his offer of help came only because he believed that the lost Dwemer settlement of Mzindyne lay beneath the quarry.

The elf informs me there is a construct control centre nearby which may enable him to take command of the constructs. He babbles something about a giant Orb, kinetic resonators, lenses and rings. To be honest I don’t understand any of it, but when he tells me I need to start hitting things until they go ping, we are suddenly on the same page.

With Mzindyne’s defences under his control Neramo offers the constructs to the Tumnosh Clan to help meet Orsinium’s demand. Forge-Wife Kharza is understandably unforgiving and is obstinate that it would be dishonourable if the stone were extracted by any other way but how Malacath expected, ‘With Orc sweat and Orc muscle!’

Kharza would have the machines destroyed or banished to Orsinium, which is essentially the same thing as Dwemer automations mostly cease to function away from their home. Yet I need to restore the Graystone Quarry to full working order before Chief Ramash will agree to attend Kurog’s Great Moot. Sometimes to survive in this world one must suffer necessary evils, even if it is just until ones need subsides, or overtime the evil becomes somewhat tolerable… or even palatable.

S.K

The principle source of stone during the rebuilding of Orsinium has come from Clan Tumnosh’s Graystone Quarry located to the south-west of the capitol. The quarry however has reportedly fallen well behind in their expected shipments of late. Indeed, by the time I arrive there is no work in the quarry going on at all.

According to Forge-wife Kharza their problems started when demand from Orsinium began to outweigh their production and they hired a High Elf who claimed he could improve their yield. Not long after the elf entered a mine-shaft a fog was said to have rolled out into the quarry, screams of the miners were heard and many never reappeared through the mists. Chief Ramash himself went down into the quarry to look for his workers but he came back alone, covered in blood. Now the rest of the clan refuse to go anywhere near the quarry.

Mining is amongst the most dangerous of all occupations, and miners have developed a stoic bravery that would put many warriors to shame. I myself have pierced the callous heart of Coldharbour, and endured the lunacy of the Shivering Isles, yet the idea of entering that dark mine shaft gives me pause. There are three things in that mine-shaft that all wise men fear, silence, darkness and the unknown; yet when else can a man truly prove his courage, then when he is afraid.

When the first earthquakes of the Soulburst shook the heartlands to its core, ripping the town of Chorrol in two; nobody at that time knew the cause. But I recall a blind old woman who would often beg for food outside our barracks who claimed it was but nature fighting back in her revenge ‘gainst the thousands of years that men and mer had tilled the land, mined the mountains, fished the seas, hunted the beasts and cut down the forests. For the record, no-one believed her, for she also claimed to have lost her sight reading a scroll. And I don’t believe that nature is taking her revenge here in this quarry either. I do believe however, just as that accursed elf Mannimarco was to blame for the Soulburst, whomever this blasted elf is, is to blame for this tragedy.

The longer I live the more convinced I am that it will not be the cruelty of daedra that will eventually end us all, it will be the ambition of Elves.

S.K

The Temple of Ire in Orsimium has been attacked by fanatics claiming to be devotees of Malacath. They have barricaded the outer doors and taken the priests inside hostage. Unable to get past the front doors Eveli Sharp-Arrow aids me in finding a another entrance. It is curious how this little Bosmer is turning up wherever there is trouble; first at the ambushed caravan, then at Frostbreak Fortress, and now here. I’m not insinuating anything… it is just curious.

It appears the dedication of the Orsinium Temple to Trinimac is in opposition to the more traditional “Pariah Folk” who still venerate Malacath as their primary god. It matters not to me who the King sitting upon the throne bends his knees to. Let him believe that either Malacath beget from Trinimac, or that they are sperate deities, both can be true and neither for all I know. What matters is to prevent a brutal civil war from soaking the soils of Wrofhgar with Orismer blood.

Once inside I am forced to sneak like a Khajiit around the temple in fear of any raising the alarm which could lead to the slaughter of the hostages. Inside the rectory however I must find the remaining priests as soon as possible and thus slay any fanatic that gets in my way. My only concern is to rescue the High Priestess Solgra, she of the most illimitable eyes that captured me so. As I charge through the rectory I swear an oath to both Malacath and Trinimac, that if any have laid their filthy hands upon the High Priestess, I shall not sleep again until I have wrought such vengeance against them that would cause a daedric prince to shield their eyes and blush.

S.K