Seb’s Skyrim Journal Part 8 – Nothing I can do?

Welcome back to Seb’s Journal of his adventures in Skyrim where I have the intention of doing ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that the game has to offer. These articles will be of some of the best or most amusing experiences I have in the game and I will hopefully be coming out with them fairly regularly. If you are interested you can see where I left off last time here.

Tolfdir has managed to bring the giant glowing orb from Saarthal back to the College and it is sitting right in the centre of Hall of Elements. I don’t fully understand how they managed to get the thing, considering that it is bloody huge, all the way from there to here without even a giant orb shaped hole where the door used to be but I decided not to dwell on it. Tolfdir informs me that this some have started calling this thing the “Eye of Magnus” which means nothing to me but seems to hold some significance to him. I inform him that I succeeded in retrieving the books for the Library and that one of them seems to hold some relevance to the orb. Honestly that involved too much reading for me so I just lied and told him I had read it and let him tall me what the Eye was all about.

Apparently it not only is carved with runes and symbols that nobody recognises and the thing radiates Magicka. Now while he speaks I am free to examine it on my own and I say freely that while I agree that it is a thing of beauty and wonder something about it worries me. I’m surprised that the mages would be so careless to bring something like this right into the centre of the College and I can’t help but feel intimidated by the thing. Perhaps I am being made cynical and overly paranoid but I fear that this orb will be a source of trouble in the not-to-distant future.

We are interrupted from our musings by Ancano the resident fuckwit Thalmor bastard. I like high elves you know, magic and intelligence in one neat package. But Ancano just rubs me the wrong way, especially considering my slowly growing desire to go and help out the Stormcloaks. He looks down on me like I am nothing and tells me that a member of the Psijic Order, an order supposedly long since extinct and disappeared has appeared out of the blue to come and speak to me, me by name. Considering that this is not the first one of the Order I have met recently I am less than surprised but Ancano is obviously pissed off, I have to resist the urge to tell him that jealousy is an ugly colour.

The meeting with the monk provided about as many answers to my questions as the last time. I entered the room where he was speaking with Archmage Savos Aren and before I could so much as say “How do you do?” he pauses time. This is the second time this has happened and naturally I quite want him to tell me how he does it, a freeze-time spell would make so many things so much easier, but no he quickly goes into a rant about how the Eye of Magnus is dangerous.

How shocking. Seriously? The giant glowing blue orb which radiates Magicka and I am almost certain is some sort of weapon is dangerous? No! Tell me more about this! The orb which we found as soon as I arrived at the College, the orb which they brought back to the College straight away without a moment’s hesitation! That one? It’s dangerous?

My sarcasm falls on deaf ears though and Quaranir, for that is the monk’s name, informs me that the longer the Eye is held here the more dangerous things become. The Order is, however, uncertain of how to proceed and he tells me to seek out the Augur of Dunlain for answers. Ever the lackey I agree instantly, time resumes and Quaranir fucks off into the tundra leaving both Savos Aren and That-Bastard-Ancano confused about what the hell just happened. I tell neither of them anything, That-Bastard-Ancano is obviously upset about this and I only just resist laughing in his pointy face, the Archmage seems bothered but again I don’t tell him. Actually something about the Archmage is a little off-putting, maybe I AM paranoid but I think I’m going to wait for a bit before trusting him.

Finding out about where to find this “Augur” was the work of a few moments, Tolfdir apparently is the resident font of knowledge, and I head into the bowels of the College.

Now how the hell a place like The Midden even exists confuses me. Right underneath the College of the most renowned magicians in Skyrim is a series of caves and tunnels filled with skeletons and ice wraiths. Seriously? I don’t buy it. Frankly I would have expected it to be a chore for students to go down into the caves and kill everything that moves as a practice for their Destruction magic. But nope, apparently nobody ever goes down there. Ever. And so as I descend into the depths I have to fight my way through the vermin which have gathered here. Nothing too strenuous honestly, but a pain in the neck if there ever was one.

Skipping forward a bit I succeeded in finding the Augur who was not what I was expecting. A ball of writhing flame and energy, suspended in the centre of a small room deep in the Midden. It spoke in a deep and musical voice, and it became instantly clear to me that this thing, whatever it was, was apparently an individual. Now this is the sort of thing that ought to be up in the College, it’s clear that it knows much about many things and yet there is nobody down here to listen to it’s wisdom.

It tells me that That-Bastard-Ancano came down here before I did which gives me some pause. I don’t even know how quickly skeletons and ice-wraiths get into these caves but it honestly makes no sense that they would be reappearing after only a few minutes. Even more than that I had the guy in eyesight for the entire time I was on the surface, how the hell did he beat me down here? Well, it is no matter for the Augur didn’t answer his questions and apparently will answer mine.

HAH! NOT!

No, the Augur speaks in riddles about me being unable to prevent the disaster. Even by finding the Eye things are apparently set in motion and now it is up to me to simply deal with the fallout. I stand there completely stunned, eyes focused on this entity as I listen to it’s words. Never before have I been told that I cannot prevent any disaster, this is something of a first to me and I don’t much appreciate it. The orb tells me that to try and deal with the orb I must find the Staff of Magnus (hey it has the same name has the orb!). This immensely powerful staff will be the only way to… Do something… Or prevent something? I don’t know, honestly the thing was very hard to follow…

It is with this puzzle on my mind that I turn to leave the Midden, the Augur disappearing into the ether behind me. A disaster which cannot be stopped? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

But will I succeed? Will the Augur be proved right? Will I get to smash Ancano’s puny face against the Eye of Magnus and tell him to suck it? Will I get to use the Eye to bring fire and lightning to all of my enemies? We will, hopefully, find out soon enough!