An ancient ruin lays to the south, under which sprawls a labyrinth of subterranean halls and caverns.  Its Ayleid name is long forgot, but the locals now refer to it as ‘Bonesnap’ after the tribe of green-skinned goblins that have made these ruins their home.

The locals tell of how recently a Lion Guard expedition entered the ruins in order to assess the full extent of the goblin infestation, but there has been no word or sign from them since.  In fact, the goblins have become more conspicuous and aggressive than ever before, attacking anyone unfortunate enough to venture too close.

It appears I shall have to fight my way in if I am to discover what fate has befallen this lost expedition.

S.K

The Redguard envoy is demanding the execution of Sir Hughes for the murder of King Fahara’jhad’s daughter, whilst Sir Edmund pleads for leniency, claiming Sir Hughes mind and actions were not his own.

Once more it would appear that the greatest threat to this Covenant comes not from forces without, but from friends within.  Yet that is not the whole truth.  There is always to be found an outside influence, whispering, persuading, guiding, and corrupting.  It is in the minds of every individual that this battle for Tamriel will be fought and eventually won or lost.  I wonder that we are still able to trust at all, but we do, because in spite of everything we believe we still share the same ideals and principles of those about us.

I find it difficult to believe however that you can make somebody do something they really don’t want to do, even under the influence of witchcraft and sorcery.  To manipulate someone into such an immoral action, you would surely have to work on something that already exists inside of them.  A buried sentiment perhaps, a bigotry born of ignorance, or a misogamy born of naiveté.

Or perhaps it was just that the weight of duty was too much for him, and he desperately needed somebody to lift that burden of responsibility.  That he is guilty of nothing more than an inability to cope with expectation.

Sir Hughes is not a bad man, he is a weak man.

Is being weaker than required a crime worthy of execution?  Is total culpability the price of responsibility?  Is the guilt of Sir Hughes not that he committed such a repugnant act, but that he shed his responsibility for his own actions?

As a soldier the answer I give is this… 

A man is nothing but what he makes of himself.

S.K

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Vaermina’s pet, the artful Omen of Fear, has taken control Sir Hughes’s mind, poisoning his thoughts, manipulating his reason, and through his murderous actions, has threatened to undermine the Daggerfall Covenant and plunge High Rock and Hammerfell into war.

S.K

Sir Hughes lies in a comatose state, his mind now fully subjugated to whatever power has been influencing his recent crimes.  I cannot, will not, condemn a sleeping man.  It seems I myself must enter his dream-state to repel whomever, or whatever holds his mind bewitched.

People believe that just because we cannot physically touch them, taste them, feel them, that our dreams aren’t real; but they are.  They are made of perception, of imagination, of memories, and of hopes both lost and won.

I dream of dragons, yet I’ve never seen one; I dream of kisses, I have never once tasted.  I dream of songs, I have never heard sung; and I dream of souls, yet I have none.

S.K

It is said that the difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of their cause, but that’s only partially true, as the perspective of the victor is the interpreter of all history.

I do not believe that Sir Croix is a bad man.  He may truly believe that he is fulfilling his duty as a Knight of the Flame to protect the people of Alcaire by attacking the Redguards.  Or perhaps like Sir Hughes, he may have fallen under the insidious influence of another.

The point is, it doesn’t matter his reasons or his cause; in the end the only difference between a good man and a bad one is whether or not he wins the day.

S.K