The Fevered Mews are the desolate caves and ravine set into the hillside above the Breton city of Shornhelm.  Long ago victims of plague and disease were banished here to die, still many of their blackened and charred remains litter the ravine.  Nothing lives here now, no plants or insects, even the birds won’t fly across the gully’s air which hangs heavy to this day with the stench of rot and decay.  The only sign of living are Montclair’s sullen soldiers, pondering just what they did or who they upset to get assigned to this wretched duty.

Montclair’s General Reezal-Jul has kidnapped some prominent nobles and opened a portal nearby in an attempt to bolster his occupation of Upper Shornhelm; Count Verandis describes the Argonian as ‘powerful and not quite sane’.  The Rivenspire noble joins me as we chase the Argonian’s tail deeper into the caverns but alas are too late to prevent his escape.

We fight hard to beat back his bloodfiends and set ourselves for Verandis’s attempt to close the portal for good, when through the black void steps a Vampiric Knight.

S.K

Shornhelm’s upper city has been overrun by Baron Montclair’s soldiers; the corpses of their victims lay all about the castle grounds disregarded by their unsympathetic killers.  Even in the Legion we were taught to respect the fallen, no matter friend or foe, because we believed that there by the grace of the Divines go we.

Too many of these victims were unarmed civilians, but I have no time to lament for those that are beyond my help, nor can I become side-tracked with thoughts of reprisal, and I canst reclaim this city alone.  I am here to prevent the renegades Juberic Gane, and Orlozag gra-Yarzol, from further treachery and to discover what I can as to the intentions of Montclair.

I fear the news with which I return suggest at a far fouler enterprise then any of us had first suspected, save perhaps Varandis.

Whilst searching the dungeons I am able to free a captured Shornhelm Guard by the name of Skordo.  In hindsight it may have been safer for him to stay put till the upper city is retaken, but there is no more pitiful a sight on Nirn than an Orc in a cage.

S.K

Midnight at the Shornhelm Chapel and two of the regions rulers meet with an enigmatic noble, Varandis Ravenwatch, to discuss their counteraction against the usurper Count Montclair.  The irenic Countess Tamrith and the brusque Baron Dorell share little in common, and no doubt Montclair had hoped to take advantage of their contrary attitudes.  However, they are united in their resolution to reclaim control of the upper city this very night.

Varandis is convinced there is more behind his former friends aggression then mere ambition and greed, and requests that I look for clues that might elucidate Montclair’s motives and reason.

What I found much more intriguing however was Varandis’s little bat hiding near the chapel rafters.  The Wood Elf is unabashed when I accuse her of spying claiming we are all on the same side. To spy upon ones enemies shows competence, to spy also upon ones allies shows wisdom; it is a move straight from the Imperial diplomatic handbook, and I wholeheartedly approve.

S.K

After all the constant battle and turmoil of the past few months it felt good to spend some time in the company of old friends. Friendship… as a soldier in the Legion I would have willingly, and foolishly risked my own life to shield my comrades from our enemy’s blades, but since my return from Coldharbour I had begun to believe that friendship was an unnecessary, a nicety, a distraction from my intention.

Perhaps it was because most people I have met on my journey have either raced on ahead for glory, or followed on behind for safety. In Kaleen, Lerisa, and Nicolene, I have found friends who have shown they are willing to walk beside me into danger. The Argonian’s have a saying, ‘It is better to follow the River with friends in darkness, than alone in the light’… perhaps.

What I have come to realise is that friendship is much like art, music and philosophy, in that you do not appreciate just how important they are when you are without them; it is only when with them that you discover they are a necessity.

I hope to live long enough to see my friends again.

S.K