With the nesting grounds of the Giant Scorpion matron destroyed, I am directed south to the Sunken Lair where lies the Wamasu; the other giant predator used by the Scaled Court in their alchemical breeding of the Mantikora.

It is quite astonishing that these giant reptiles, natives of the great marshlands of the south, have come to be in the arid wastes of Craglorn. The simplest explanation however may be found to the west in the delve of Haddock’s Market, where the smugglers of the Greycloack Mercenaries hold a large adult Wamasu captive. I recall whilst there seeing the unique shimmering eggs of the wamasu, their glistening husks illuminating the gloom as if the brood were charging up inside their shells.

It is perhaps unlikely that these Wamasu will ever become more then an oddity of this discordant age in Craglorn however. For even if they survive the arid environment, the passion for hunting, whether it be in the name of culling, sport, or food, is deeply implanted in the nature of both man and mer. Is it not an adage of Hircine’s followers that says, ‘those that join the hunt for the largest prey, care for nothing more from that day.’

S.K

Deep in the craggy hills to the west of Dragonstar lies cavernous ruins where members of the Scaled Court can be found busy studying lost Nedic texts and artefacts. It is believed that the Nedes had a far superior understanding as to the properties of the local element nirncrux then we do today. But more importantly for the Celestial Serpent’s cultists, the deepest parts of Fearfangs Caverns are made up of very large chambers in which can be found the nesting grounds of a giant scorpion matron they call Lakorrah.

It is common wisdom in the arid wastes that a scorpion will not trouble you unless you step on one, because scorpions being opportunistic predictors, rarely attack a victim unless they mistakenly wander into their ambush range. However, no scholar who has set out to measure the ‘ambush range’ of these giant predictors of Craglorn has yet survived to report their findings.

The sting of the scorpion is as venomous as the fangs of the serpent, and so it is that the brood of this giant predator is used by the Scaled Court to alchemically augment the might of the mantikoras. That is why, if this giant matron can be overcome, we must purge her nesting grounds with fire.

S.K

Regent Cassipia, a leader in the insidious Scaled Court, sent a messenger requesting that we meet at an old derelict farm on the outskirts of the town of Dragonstar. She claims that she only wants to make Nirn better, in her own erroneous way; whilst the Celestial Serpent, much like the Yokudan serpent god Satakal, wants to destroy the world and start over. That she says, makes the Serpent our ‘common enemy’.

She says that she can not openly oppose the Serpent whilst maintaining her high rank in the echelons of the Scaled Court. So she must employ subterfuge and an accomplice; or a believable scapegoat should all go wrong. The serpent, having failed to build its elemental army to the east, now plots to build an army of Mantikoras to the west. These powerful and cunning beasts are bred by alchemical measure, combing the worst traits of some of Tamriel’s most pernicious predators.

Of course I should not trust a member of the Scaled Court, especially one seemingly so willing to betray their own master; betrayal is most common to those of little conscience. Yet the true betrayal in all this is perhaps not Cassipia’s, rather it is the Scaled Courts betrayal of Tamriel. That so many are willing to betray their families, friends, and selves is a tragedy. In all the history of mer and men, mute compliance in the face of tyranny is the perhaps the greatest betrayal of them all.

S.K

Some people believe that ghosts are nothing more then unfinished stories, and that aptly describes the ghosts I find here in the Burial Grounds of Shada’s Tear. The Nedic phantoms re-enact their tale of how when under imminent threat of invasion by the Yokudans, they turned to the Neried Queen Shada for help, and all she asked in return was for them to drink of the waters.

Of course the voices of ghost are no less treacherous then that of the living, and all history is but reflections of partisan or perception, be it theirs or mine. What sympathy I had for their fate was soon however to evaporate when the ghosts began to materialize back into their physical forms to attack me.

A deadly poisonous cloud, a huge Flesh Atronach, and the tortured soul of General Zal’ik himself must all be overcome before I can eventually confront Emi’liah, the daughter of Shada who corrupts the waters of the burial grounds.

S.K