This story contains spoilers for the Lost Spires mod.
Chapter 1
After hearing an interesting rumor while staying at the Merchant's Inn, Nova found himself standing outside of an old, dilapidated castle which was the headquarters for the Archeology Guild in Cyrodiil. The castle definitely looked to have seen better days but didn't seem to be in danger of falling on his head, so Nova walked to the door and headed inside.
Upon entering, he stood looking around for a moment before hearing someone clear their throat nearby. Looking for the origin of the sound, Nova saw a smiling Argonian man in a red robe looking at him with curiosity. He approached the man and asked if the guild was accepting new members. After much discussion about his skills and experience in archeology (Nova was a scholar of Ayleid and Dwemer history), the man, who had introduced himself as Teave, accepted Nova as a temporary member of the Archeology Guild and invited him to look around the guild hall and become acquainted with the other members.
After having a look around and chatting with the his new colleagues, Nova returned to Teave and asked if he had any work that needed done. He did in fact, and sent Nova off to explore a new archeological site the guild had recently discovered, which they were simply calling "The Spire". They desperately wanted to look into it further, but no one in the guild had enough combat experience to feel comfortable delving too deeply inside.
Upon arrival at the spire, Nova instantly saw that the guild members had been right in stating that the structure was unlike any other they or he had ever seen before. He had seen and explored plenty of both Dwemer and Ayleid ruins, and this was nothing like either. After looking around the base of the strange structure for a bit, he decided to venture inside.
The interior of the spire was filled with oddly glowing blue crystals, and Nova wondered briefly about their alchemical properties before continuing further inside. He noticed that some of the cave walls seemed to be affected by the crystals and were speckled with blue. At the end of a winding tunnel tunnel system, he found a crystal shard that was mostly encased in a dark rock, but still shone brightly where it was exposed. He slipped it into his bag and headed back to the guild hall.
Chapter 2
After resting for the night, Nova headed back to the Archeology Guild to talk to Teave. Upon showing him the crystal fragment, he became very excited, but was unhappy with the rock surrounding the brilliant blue shard.
"You need to speak with Tumyr and get some of his special dissolving agent. It should take this outer rock and grime right off," Teave said. "You'll find him at his dig site near Fort Alessia. Take my advice and don't touch the slime..."
Nova headed out to see Tumyr, arrived at his excavation site around noon. He took some time to get a good look at the fossil they were extracting, as that wasn't something one sees every day. He also got a good look at a large, dripping cocoon hanging from a tent in the campsite. He supposed that was the source of the slime Teave had warned him not to touch.
Tumyr explained that the acidic slime from the cocoon could be mixed with Green Stain Cup Caps to create a strong dissolving agent that he and his assistants used to excavate the giant fossil. He had Nova gather five samples of Green Stain Cup Caps to mix with the slime to create a new batch of dissolving agent, and then sent him on his way.
When Nova returned to the guild hall, Teave took the bottle of dissolving agent from him and told him that the guildmaster wanted to see him. So, with his curiosity peaked, Nova headed to the library to meet with the guildmaster, Kal Rythor. Rythor and Nova spoke for some time, Rythor making Nova's guild membership permanent, and Nova filling him in on his work with Teave.
Rythor, however, wasn't too interested in what Nova and Teave had been up to, and instead sent Nova on an errand to a mine to ask the miners to dig a tunnel. Apparently on his latest expedition, Rythor had found another spire, but was unable to get inside due to it being severely overgrown with large vines. Rythor wanted the miners in the nearby Bloodvein mine to tunnel into the spire from within the mine. Nova slung his backpack over his shoulder and set off, reaching the mine just as the sun was setting.
This seemed a simple enough task, but when Nova entered the mine, he found all the miners in a state of panic. Speaking with the foreman, he learned that they had apparently tunneled into a vampire's lair, and two of their men had been taken captive. Nova volunteered to go in after the two men, which was a good thing, as the foreman then informed him that they wouldn't be digging any tunnels for anyone until the vampires were dealt with.
Nova summoned a magical torch and delved deeper into the mine, heading for the entrance to the vampire's lair. Only one vampire was within the mine. Nova quickly dispatched it and entered the ancient lair, only to find the two miners sadly strung up and quite dead. There were many vampires hiding in the dark, and they all sprung out to attack when Nova's ethereal torchlight shone on their hiding spots. Upon reaching the inner part of the lair, Nova was shocked to find huge tanks of human blood waiting to feed the vampires living there. A bit shaken, he finished off the last of the vampires and headed back to the foreman, who then agreed to dig the tunnel. With this agreement forged, he headed outside and set up camp for the night.
Chapter 3
Nova awoke in his tent outside Bloodvein Mine early in the morning. After a quick breakfast of apples and cheese, he packed his tent away in his backpack and cast a recall spell, appearing in the main hall of the guild headquarters with his skin tingling from the teleportation magic.
Teave was waiting for Nova when he arrived and they spoke quickly. He had managed to extract the crystal shard from the meteorite matrix Nova had brought back from the first spire, and a glyph was now clearly visible on it. Teave handed Nova a sketch of the glyph and sent him to speak with Domitian Verus, the guild's expert on all types of symbols and ancient languages. He then hurried off to meet Rythor at the site of the spire he had sent Nova to clear out as his first task.
Verus was in good spirits when Nova entered his chambers, and was intrigued by the symbol Teave had discovered. He then frowned, and grumbled that he might have been able to translate it, but the book he needed was in Bravil, and the bookseller was being stubborn about the price. He had settled for a transcript of the expensive book, but it had been weeks, and he hadn't heard anything.
“Rathmer wants to auction the book off to some rich collectors,” Verus told Nova grumpily. “No respect for scholarly research, just money... but, if we're lucky, maybe you can get him to hurry up. Here. Take these coins and head to Bravil. See if you can get the transcript. I hope you have more luck than I've had.” Nova took the coin purse, exited the guildhall, and headed south towards Bravil.
Once in Bravil, Nova walked through the town, to the western end near the Chapel of Mara. Rathmer's Books was a small shop tucked between the chapel and the Mages Guild. Upon entering, Nova approached the owner and tried to negotiate for the transcript of the book. Unfortunately, Rathmer didn't even have it. Apparently, the book was being transcribed by a woman named Rhea Miro in Leyawiin. He did say that it should have been finished by now and that he hadn't heard from Miro in some time.
“If you're in such a hurry, why don't you go down to Leyawiin and seen what's taking so long?” Rathmer said. He dismissed Nova with a polite but bored, “Nice talking to you, my dear sir,” and went back to sorting his books.
Nova groaned with frustration and stepped back outside, pulling on his hood, as it had started to rain. He was not looking forward to walking to Leyawiin in the pouring rain, but knew there was no other choice if he wanted to get this transcript for Verus.
The roads were muddy, but Nova still made good time and arrived in Leyawiin by early evening. He quickly pulled aside a guard and asked where to find this Miro.
“Over by the south wall, but there's been some trouble. Go see for yourself, but I'm not sure what you'll be able to find there...” the guard said, pointing towards a pillar of black smoke rising in the distance on the far side of town.
Nova walked towards the smoke, his nostrils scrunching up at the smell of burnt wood and ash. When he reached the source of it, he saw that the scribe's office had been entirely burned down. After bribing the guard out front, Nova entered the ruined building, only to find Rhea Miro's body in the rubble.
“What in Oblivion...” Nova muttered aloud, wondering how people could do such a thing just to get a book, no matter how rare it may be. Glancing around, he saw a burned bit of paper with familiar runes on it. Assuming that it must be what was left of the transcript of the book that started all this, Nova gently rolled the parchment up and placed it in his pack. He then headed back to Bravil to give the sad new to Rathmer that both his colleague and the book were gone.
Rathmer allowed Nova to take what was left of the transcript with him, and once Nova finished talking to Rathmer, he cast Recall once again and immediately found himself standing in the Archeology Guild's main hall. He headed back up to Verus's quarters and the two of them spent an hour, at least, bent over the burnt parchment, discussing the runes and comparing them to the ones found at the spire. There wasn't an exact match to the rune that had sent Nova to Bravil in the first place, but another rune in the transcript perfectly matched another rune from the spire. It referenced coordinates, and so Verus sent Nova downstairs to talk to Aster Cei, the cartographer of the guild. Nova jotted down the coordinates and headed down the stone staircase to find out where to go next.
Chapter 4
Gripping the parchment with Verus's coordinates on it in his hand, Nova excitedly made his way down to talk to Aster Cei, the guild's resident cartographer. After showing him the paper, Aster explained that these were coordinates to an Ayleid ruin in the region of the Nibenay Basin. Nova flattened his map out on the table in front of them, and Aster made a mark where the ruin would be located. Nova decided to rest in his tent for the night and then set out at first light.
The weather was nice and dry as the sun rose, perfect for traveling, and Nova was quite excited as he pulled on a fresh set of robes. He broke down his tent, put on his pack, and set out heading east from the steps of the guildhall. He used water walking spells to keep his feet dry, and moved through the countryside quickly.
It was late morning when Nova arrived at the coordinates Aster had marked on his map. There was indeed another spire, rising out of the ground, dark and foreboding, and yet Nova was excited to explore it's depths. He quickly made his way to the door and entered the ruin.
Inside, he was greeted by many of the same bright blue crystal formations he had seen in the first spire he'd explored. Fascinated, he summoned his torch and took some time to examine them, even chipping off a small piece to take back to the laboratory in his home. They were incredibly dense and hard, and he had to use a bit of magic to get the piece to break loose. Once he had stowed the crystal chunk in his backpack, Nova headed deeper into the spire.
Further in, Nova was attacked by strange daedra and undead creatures. They seemed to have been mutated by the crystals in the spire. They were covered in splotches of blue, similar to the marks on the cave walls, and near in color to the crystals themselves. They were a bit stronger than their normal counterparts, but Nova didn't have much trouble with them.
At the heart of the spire, it opened up into a large room, and Nova was shocked to see a glowing blue portal, shining brightly at the top of a set of stairs. He quickly cast multiple spells to protect from damage and status effects, and stepped through the glowing doorway.
The magic of the portal burned his skin, but he had little time to dwell on the pain. As soon as he had materialized on the other side of the portal, he was attacked by a strange floating being. It flung spells and even pulled some of the ceiling down on top of his head, but Nova's spells were strong and hit the being hard, knocking it back and stunning it. Reaching out from beneath the rubble, Nova cast a final spell, and the strange being fell to the floor dead.
It was a powerful foe, and even with his preparation, Nova was winded and injured. He cast a strong healing spell, and then began climbing out of the rubble the being had flung down on him. Telekinesis magic helped quite a bit, and soon Nova was able to scramble out of the chunks of stone and really look around.
This seemed to be some kind of pocket realm, and it was beautiful. Nova was standing on a large platform, but all around him the air seemed to shimmer and everything was bathed in a purple-blue light. He walked to the far end of the platform, where the being had been hovering, and picked up the strange staff it had used to fling some of the magic at him. There was some sort of container nearby, emitting a bright blue light. Nova approached the urn, but his attention was drawn to a skeleton on the ground. It looked ancient, so he took utmost care when investigating it. Grasped in its bony hand was a scroll with Ayleid script written carefully across it. He picked it up gently and placed it in his pack. Knowing he had found all he could, Nova cast Recall and appeared in the Archeology Guild Main Hall.
Once back at headquarters, Nova climbed the stairs to Verus's quarters. Verus was glad to see Nova return with new information, and looked intently at the scroll he brought back with him.
“This is definitely an Ayleid scroll, but I can only translate bits of it,” Verus said. “You should take it to Sova. She's the expert in all things Ayleid around here.”
Nova took the scroll back from Verus and headed down the hall to Sova's quarters, but when when he entered, Sova had a shocked and heartbroken look on her face.
“Did you already hear about Teave?” she asked sadly.
“No, what happened?” Nova replied, worry creeping into his voice.
“Teave... Teave's dead. I just found out. Bandits attacked the excavation site and killed Teave and two assistants. Only assistant Mogens survived. They stole artifacts that Teave had recovered, and just... just killed them,” Sova sobbed. “We're having a funeral tonight. Please, come to say goodbye.”
Nova was shocked and saddened by this news, but also angered. He swore to avenge his friend, and then took a quiet moment to himself before the funeral.
The funeral was a short affair – a moment of silence and then they cremated Teave's body. There were many tears shed. Only the headmaster had the fortitude not to cry as they all said their goodbyes. Afterwards everyone headed back inside, and Nova set up his tent by the nearby Doomstone for a night's rest. The next day, Nova spoke with Norlene. She was taking Teave's death particularly hard, but she had also heard a rumor that could help them avenge him.
Chapter 5
Norlene had heard that a private collector named Rodon Dakkon had recently come into ownership of a very unique new sword. By the description, it sounded like one of the artifacts stolen from Teave during the attack on the excavation site. Norlene wanted Dakkon dead, but Nova wasn't a killer and had to hear his side of what happened. Either way, Nova wouldn't murder him.
Dakkon apparently lived in Cheydinhal, and so Nova set out towards the city, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and strapping the new staff he'd won from the magical enemy in the spire's pocket realm onto his back. It wasn't too far to Cheydinhal from the guild hall, and he was at the gates by noon.
Nova approached the beggar hanging around near the gates and asked where Rodon Dakkon lived. The beggar pointed him the large house nearest to the east gates and Nova handed him ten gold coins. Upon entering Dakkon's home, Nova noticed many display cases around the place, each filled with expensive weapons. He found Dakkon on the top floor, but also found the weapon Norlene had told him about. It was clearly from the spire, the tell-tale blue glowing brightly.
Nova confronted Dakkon about the sword somewhat aggressively. At first Dakkon argued, but when Nova mentioned Teave's murder, he quickly quieted down and listened to what Nova had to say. Eventually, Nova got him to admit buying the sword from a group of bandits near Bravil, and he gave up the location of their lair when a bit of fire danced around Nova's fingers. It was just for show, but Dakkon didn't need to know that. With the bandits' lair marked on his map, Nova took the spire sword and set towards Bravil, feeling somewhat better knowing he was one step closer to avenging Teave.
He arrived at the bandit lair near Bravil in only a few hours, and readied himself for what may lie inside. He cast a strong shield spell, summoned his magical torch, and stepped confidently into the cave. Inside the cave the tunnels wound downwards until, eventually, they opened up into a large flooded cavern with the bandits' camp in the middle on a small island. After casting a quick spell of water walking, Nova was on the center island, and was locked in combat with the bandit leader. He was strong and hit hard with his warhammer, but Nova's shield spell was equally strong and the bandit leader fell, lifeless, to the stone ground.
Looking around, Nova saw a large tent and, figuring it belonged to the boss, he pulled the cloth door aside and began to look around. At first he didn't find much, but then he looked inside a chest near one of the tent walls. Inside was a scroll from the spire – the other artifact Teave had found. Nova carefully stowed it in his backpack and smiled, knowing that now Teave's spirit could rest easy. He had been avenged.
