The Quest Line of the College of Winterhold

Greetings. Today, I am going to assist you in navigating yet another (traditionally, very challenging) quest line in the wonderful game The [Elder Scrolls](/games?search=Elder Scrolls) V: Skyrim. Due to the extreme complexity and variety of tasks, I decided to creatively intersperse the walkthrough with the musings of my hero and personal evaluations of the situation. This time, I became interested in the local guild of mages, modestly referred to as the "College of Winterhold." Since Hulk rules somewhere in the southern regions of the province, we will need a new hero. I decided not to create Gendamblwind №35246, so the future greatest mage of Skyrim will be somewhat unusual. He will be guided by the principle that a true master of magic will use it only in the most necessary cases. And I will count those cases. Forward!

He awoke lying in the snow, next to some ancient crypt. Rising, the hero quickly checked his body - strangely, all organs were in place. Only two things troubled our hero - the mask of Krozis, firmly attached to his head, and a complete loss of memory (stamps!). No explanatory tattoos were discovered on his body, and there were no talking floating skulls in the vicinity, which made everything more complicated.

Furthermore, the mask did not match well with the full set of heavy dwarven armor, distorting reality around the future mage's head - the fabric freely passed through solid metal, but Krozis (let's call him that) did not pay attention to this. One thought swirled in his head: "YOU'RE A WIZARD, HARRY Become a wizard!". Trying to remember who "Harry" was, Krozis trudged forward and eventually reached Winterhold. Let's remember this city in all its snowy beauty (as if there is any other in Skyrim), soon everything will change here.

First Lessons

In the northern part of the city was the sought-after bridge leading to the College. However, it was not so easy to get there - the gatekeeper Faralda only allowed very capable students who could cast powerful spells like Magical Light, Fire Bolt, and summon an Atronach. By the way, these masterpieces of magical art could be purchased from her for a symbolic 30 coins. Why couldn't they just make the entrance pay?

Unclear. Krozis conjured Magical Light onto the symbolic depiction of an eye at Faralda's feet, after which she allowed him to pass, sensing the Great Power in him. Spell №1, Magical Light, a basic spell from the Illusion school. The entrance exams here are top-notch. Krozis was somehow sure that the Dragonborn could simply shout and ensure free passage into the guild without being a mage at all.

After asking why Krozis wanted to study here (the answer option depended on the set of robes that would be issued a little later, nothing significant), Faralda instructed him to speak in the inner courtyard with Mirabelle Ervine, the senior wizard. Essentially, the senior wizards (there are two of them here) are deputies of the archmage himself (the head of the College). The way to the courtyard lay through a narrow stone bridge, on which there were absolutely unprotected sources of pure magical energy (as Krozis pointed out, strikingly resembling painted blue bonfires). Safety protocols here are quite good. It's as if the stairs in the Gazprom office were decorated with burning gas torches day and night. Krozis didn’t know what Gazprom was, but the comparison seemed successful to him.

Mirabelle, right after speaking with Ancano (Krozis immediately remembered his brazen face), handed the hero a novice's cloak and robe (enchanted depending on Faralda's answer), and then arranged a small tour. The central square of the College was a round enclosed courtyard with a statue in the center. To the left was the Hall of Attainment, where Mirabelle led Krozis. In the room with such an extravagant name were the quarters of apprentice mages, and everything was decorated in the classic style of "there are never enough dead animals".

Krozis, however, liked his room very much, although he saw it only once. He only learned about the existence of the second floor and the exit to the roof many, many years later.

To the right of the entrance to the College was the Hall of Tranquility, where experienced mages resided. The difference was that it made sense to come to this Hall; the trainers loved to share their skills, especially when they were awakened in the middle of the night. Directly opposite the entrance was the Hall of Elements, also known as "the only-useful-room".

Inside this Hall, classes were held (or rather, a lesson, as there was only one here). The door on the left led to the archmage's quarters, the one on the right - to the Arcana, the local library. Also, there was an entrance to an interesting cellar in the College courtyard, but Krozis would get to it later.

After the tour, Mirabelle directed the hero to Tolfdir, the second Senior Wizard and the only decent teacher. He had gathered the entire group and was about to start the first class. The group, aside from Krozis, consisted of three people—the Khajiit J'zargo aka "I'm-gonna-be-the-very-best-like-no-one-ever-was", the Dunmer Brelyna aka "you-hate-me-just-because-I'm-black", and the Nord Onmund aka "my-parents-would-have-accepted-a-gay-son-with-more-pleasure". Krozis couldn't shake the feeling that this trio wouldn't show much. But he liked Tolfdir. Unlike the archmage Savos Arena, who was wandering nearby. Krozis found him to be a very slippery character.

The old man began to talk about the dangers of uncontrolled use of magic (while behind the students' backs, there was a gigantic magic projector, and instead of torches, magical lights hung everywhere in the College), but the students interrupted him and began to demand practice. Tolfdir then asked Krozis to help demonstrate the Lesser Ward spell.

Apparently, the old man hoped to apply something that would eliminate the ungrateful milk-soppers with shards and wanted to protect the only student who supported him. Ultimately, Tolfdir changed his mind and simply asked Krozis to stand on the image of the eye directly opposite him. The demonstration was simple - one needed to activate the Ward and maintain it until Tolfdir hit the shield with a weak spell. Spell №2, Lesser Ward, a basic spell from the Restoration school.

After the demonstration, Tolfdir directed the students to Saarthal, an ancient tomb where the next lesson would take place. Four novice mages in an ancient magical crypt, what could possibly go wrong? At the exit, Krozis was halted by that very Ancano, the High Elf who claimed to be the Archmage's advisor. This elf, judging by his attire, was an agent of the Thalmor, the elven government seeking to extend its influence into all spheres of life in Cyrodiil. Ancano was disliked by everyone here, and this disdain was mutual. A spider's instinct hinted to Krozis that this wouldn't end well.

Under Saarthal

When Krozis reached the entrance to the tomb, the whole group with the teacher was already waiting for him. It seemed that only the Dragonborn was not taught teleportation here. Anyway, the mages went inside, and Krozis trailed at the end of the procession. In a small hall with a vertical descent down, Tolfdir assigned everyone tasks, and he instructed Krozis to find Arniel Gane to assist him with artifact hunting.

The nearest such artifact was the Amulet of Saarthal, enchanted with one of the most powerful effects in the game - all spells cost 3 percent less. The magic market collapsed the moment this ancient artifact was lifted, and seismic waves from the collapse dropped the grate in the door frame, cutting Krozis off from Arniel and Tolfdir. The latter advised to wear the amulet just in case. Strangely enough, that helped - the wall where it had been fixed began to glow strangely, after which Krozis could collapse it with the Flame spell (any other would suffice). Magic №3, Flame, a basic spell from the Destruction school.

The fall of the wall somehow lifted the grate, after which Krozis and Tolfdir headed to explore the corridor that opened up to their eyes.

After a while, they found themselves in a small room where Krozis got quite overwhelmed. Time stopped, and right before his eyes, a strange man in a yellow-red robe appeared, Nerin. He stated that he belonged to the ancient magical order of the Psijics, and that the wild chaos had already begun, and Krozis now had only to prepare for sorting it all out.

After the conversation, it turned out that Tolfdir saw nothing. Well, of course, time had stopped. But it wasn't only Tolfdir that didn't understand the situation. In order to interrogate about what had happened, three draugrs broke into the room, with which the future greatest mage dealt with using an enchanted dwarven bow.

Why not? Enchantments are also magic, all fair play. The attack of the draugrs opened another exit from the room, which the mages promptly used.

Soon, Krozis and Tolfdir found themselves in a large hall with a bridge in the center. Dealing with yet another pair of draugrs, the hero began to search for a way out, as the exit gates were closed with two grates. Everything was very simple, the levers were located to the left and right of the door. Why was it even necessary to close them with grates if everything was right at hand?! If Krozis had designed the tomb, he would have placed each lever at the end of a long corridor with traps, with corridors located in opposite parts of the dungeon.

But fortunately, the dungeon was designed by simple and unperverted people. Tolfdir decided to stay in the hall and take a better look around, so Krozis moved on alone. Well, almost alone. In his hand, he tightly gripped the Rose of Sanguine, allowing him to summon a good friend for 60 seconds. Krozis didn't know where he got such a powerful artifact, but something vaguely reminded him of some bar in Whiterun where he had quite a few drinks.

In a two-story hall, Krozis faced a rather serious battle with three draugrs, but the summoned broedra turned the tide in the hero's favor. The hero, by the way, did not forget to inspect the walls of all visited rooms for shelves with potions. There were suspiciously few shelves. After climbing to the second floor, Krozis found a door to the next room, right next to a chest. Going a little further, the hero cautiously bypassed a cunning plate (TRAP!) next to another chest and calmly examined the contents.

Soon Krozis approached the first "puzzle" in this dungeon. The essence was to turn 4 stones with images of animals to display the correct combination and pull the lever. The correct symbols, so as not to tire the hero, the unknown architect placed right behind each of the stones. Indeed, only the future archmage would cope here. Krozis wanted to pull the lever without turning the stones, but the suspicious holes in the walls made him think.

In the next room, the hero was awaited by the leader of the draugrs, and it was the most standard fight, just that the space for maneuvering was extremely limited. Climbing higher, the hero discovered another chest, inside of which lay a nice amulet that enhanced two-handed weapons. Krozis was struck by a strange feeling that he too had once used such a weapon but pushed these thoughts away.

Nearby, Krozis picked up an elven shield, which he immediately began using along with his staves. Pushing through the web, the hero stumbled upon a strange rune on the floor. The rune turned out to be a magical trap, nearly becoming the last obstacle in the hero's life. Fortunately, Krozis survived, after which he inexplicably time-traveled back a few seconds and deactivated the trap with broedra.

He could have done it with a spell from the Destruction school, but it was much more epic to summon a powerful demon-type creature from another plane just to remove some rune in a long-forgotten crypt.

A little further, Krozis was greeted by a new "puzzle," this time evidently more complicated. Again 4 stones, the correct answers were drawn right next to them, but this time the stones rotated a bit more tricky. The far left one turned all the others, the nearest right one spun alone, while the remaining two rotated stones 2 and 3. Krozis simply started with the stone that rotated the most and proceeded in descending order.

Right behind the gates, Krozis noticed an enchanting table (and who needs it here?), and just then Tolfdir caught up with him. Together they walked a bit further and ended up in a gigantic hall with a strange glowing orb in the center.

Krozis stood on a small balcony and admired the obviously extremely powerful artifact, which would definitely lead to a terrible catastrophe. But then his attention was drawn by magical attacks from a draugr-wizard running somewhere below. The draugr turned out to be some ancient mage named Jurick Gauldurson. This sorcerer was invulnerable, but then Tolfdir came to the rescue. Jumping down, the old man began to do something with the magical orb, and soon Jurick lost his invulnerability. All the while, Krozis prudently ran around the balcony and shot the draugr with arrows, periodically inserting new magazines soul gems. After the battle, the hero looted a decent staff of Jurick from the altar that allowed him to strike with quite powerful lightning. Additionally, a note was discovered on the draugr's body, the source of which must be investigated in the future, but for now, Krozis decided to focus on the guild's tasks.

Tolfdir was understandably impressed by the magical sphere and remained to guard it, sending Krozis to report to the archmage (by the way, Krozis received a new dragon shout, Freeze, at the exit from the dungeon). The archmage was quite surprised (especially at the detailed description of "we found a giant round magical thing") and rewarded the hero with a disdainful comment. Well, and a staff of MAGICAL LIGHT.

The Archmage's Garden

This invaluable artifact capable of destroying all of Cyrodiil was immediately sealed by Krozis with the Seal of the Seven Circles of the Abyss and the Chain of Madness of Yorick, after which he placed it in the nearest basket. Furthermore, the archmage advised visiting Urag gro-Snabh (the orc librarian, yes) in the Arcana and to ask him about the books that might mention such a sphere. And why hadn’t these mages invented telepathy, pneumatic mail, familiar mail, or, I don't know, the TELEPHONE?

Tackling the Books

Urag was strolling through the library when something in a mask jumped out from the darkness with the words, "I NEED BOOKS." In general, Krozis did not please Urag.

Although he still couldn't help – the books had been stolen by some novice mage Orthorn, who fled from the College to Hogwarts along with a group of mages disagreeing with the line of leadership. Urag marked their hideout on the map, so Krozis immediately headed to the Fellglow Keep.

Outside the fortress, he was warmly welcomed by three mages (an ice and fire mage), the new Shout helped a lot. The main entrance to the fortress was tightly closed; however, to its left, in a partially destroyed tower, the steps led Krozis to the entrance of the Fellglow dungeon.

Without delay, he quickly moved forward, managing to figure out in a large flooded hall with an ice mage and two spiders. Fellglow, by the way, was filled with potions and soul gems (as expected, it was a refuge for mages), so Krozis did not forget to look around well. This also came in handy when spotting traps that sometimes appeared in the corridors.

Defeating one mage after another, Krozis reached a large room with a bunch of cages containing live vampires inside. The hero quickly dashed to the levers on the wall farthest from the entrance and freed all the bloodsuckers, significantly easing the subsequent few rooms. The vampires brutally dealt with the rival mages, while Krozis busily examined the bloody corpses of the main vampires lying on the operating tables in these halls. Our hero almost went gray - the dead khajiit’s tails were softly moving from side to side, as if they lived separate lives.

Continuing to move forward, Krozis soon stumbled upon a large room full of cages, in one of which sat Orthorn. A mage with a bunch of wolves tried to interfere with his release, but wolves are not chorus, so Krozis and the broedra easily dealt with the threat. As it turned out, Orthorn didn't particularly please his new friends, so after taking books, they simply locked him up, just in case. The books were taken by someone called "The Caller". Generally speaking, these dissenters turned out to be rather murky and evil, no wonder they were expelled. Despite all this, they weren’t all necromancers, which was quite odd.

Speaking of necromancers, shortly after, Krozis encountered one of them, who immediately summoned several skeletons in greeting. Laughing in response, the hero summoned a daedra, who instantly obliterated the poor fellow. Why even summon miserable undead when there’s an opportunity to summon much cooler demons? Krozis never understood the necromancers of Cyrodiil. Right behind that hall lay a door leading into the keep itself. Finally.

Inside the keep, Krozis was almost immediately awaited by a fight with two mages in some sort of summoning hall. In this same hall lay a pile of small soul gems and the book Oblivion Gates, which would be useful for summoners. Krozis continued his path through the keep (the road was quite straightforward), defeating several mages and an atronach along the way. No one posed a threat; several decent potions had been collected from the shelves. The hero even started to get bored. Soon, Krozis stumbled upon a room with an enchanting table, an alchemy station, and an anvil. There was an unusual gem lying there, which Krozis took with him just in case. Nearby was a locked room (the lock was extremely complicated), inside which was an altar of Julianus. Its blessing granted the hero an unimaginable 25 units to maximum magicka. To avoid disrupting the balance of power in Skyrim and give enemies some chance, this blessing was temporary.

After climbing the stairs, Krozis quickly dealt with another mage, then picked up the ritual hall key from his corpse. In the hall, he was already awaited by the very Caller in question. Krozis suggested returning the books amicably, but the foolish witch clearly got tired of living, and Krozis's grasp of language wasn't particularly good either. The hero also seemed to have the impression that if Orthorn had been with him, the Caller would have exchanged the poor guy for the books, but the sorceress was out of luck.

And so, two great mages prepared to clash in a magnificent magical battle. The air in the hall crackled with the giant density of the strongest magics... The sorceress struck with lightning, summoned atronachs, and teleported (not fair!), while Krozis shouted fire at her and bombarded her with arrows, and the broedra cut down the atronachs. As we can see, two truly talented mages were fighting. Having gathered all three books located in this very hall, Krozis removed the key from the witch's corpse and proceeded to her room, where he found decent artifacts. And another keep full of corpses was behind him.

Urag was very pleased with the books and bestowed upon Krozis a whole bunch of textbooks covering all areas of magic, then advised him to speak with Tolfdir in the Hall of Elements.

Good Intentions

Tolfdir was hanging around the sphere, now suspended in the Hall, as if hypnotized. The archmage proposed a great idea – to move the ancient, buried, and sealed long ago magical artifact of unclear purpose to the center of the guild of mages next to a populated town, because what could possibly go wrong, right? The sphere, it turned out, was called "The Eye of Magnus." Tolfdir explained that the inscriptions on the sphere did not belong to any of the known languages. In conversation with Tolfdir, Krozis mentioned that one of the found books was "The Night of Tears." The book stated that the famous Night of Tears (the genocide of the first settlement of Nords by the elves) did not happen due to the elves' desire to stop human expansion but because the Nords found something very valuable and very powerful under Saarthal, and greedy elves wanted to seize it. Ysgramor and his Companions ultimately slaughtered all the pointy-eared ones and sealed this something.

Speaking of elves, in the middle of Tolfdir's speech about the sphere, Ancano (that very arrogant "advisor" of the archmage who arrived from elven lands) ran into the hall and, rude to the old man, ordered Krozis to follow him to the archmage's quarters as an extremely interesting guest had arrived. The guest turned out to be someone from the Psijic Order, and he very much wished to see Krozis. As soon as the hero approached the guest, he stopped time (and why can no one else do this?) and introduced himself as Quaranir. The mage reminded that soon everything would go to hell, and that ancient artifacts should not be foolishly unearthed, but it would have to be sorted out by Krozis again. After a pause, Quaranir switched to being obtuse (aka “played dumb”), while the archmage and the advisor bombarded him with questions.

Krozis interrogated all the mages of the College about Ougur, but no one could tell anything meaningful; they merely pointed to Tolfdir. The old man explained that Ougur had once been a promising student, but then something went wrong (the soul gems could not contain the Primordial Evil, a goblin disrupted the integrity of the pentagram, someone opened a portal to the Plane of Fire in the mage's body... Krozis wasn’t really listening) and that the student transformed into something else, after which he settled in the College's cellar, from where he periodically dispensed valuable advice.

Descending into the cellar (the hatch in the courtyard), Krozis immediately jumped down through a broken window, after which, moving a little bit (and defeating two draugrs), he found himself next to the door leading to Ougur's room.

He turned out to be a giant and extremely pessimistic mass of magic, but nonetheless mentioned that Ancano had already visited him and inquired about The Eye. The sphere, as it surprisingly turned out, was extremely dangerous, and controlling it required Magnus’ staff.

The way back took more time, as Krozis encountered an ice specter and another draugr. In this very basement, in one of the rooms, the hero discovered a strange altar, and in another—the consequences of a failed ritual in the form of a daedric hand protruding from the ground and bones around it.

Krozis thought to himself that he would need to sort all this out later, but suspected that the strange altar was the legendary forge of atronachs, capable of summoning both the daedra themselves and means for their summoning, like a staff. Only a recipe was needed.

The archmage was surprised to learn that Ougur had mentioned the staff, but still once again properly rewarded Krozis's efforts by gifting him a useless Mage's Circlet with an enchantment on maximum magicka. Savos advised him to speak with Mirabelle, as she had recently mentioned Magnus’ staff.

Seeing the Invisible

Mirabelle recalled that she had just recently been asked by mages from the Synod (a magical organization of the Imperials), striving to discover the whereabouts of the staff. Something in the Dwemer ruins of Mzulft might somehow help them, to which Krozis headed immediately after the conversation.

Right at the entrance to the ruins, the hero's gaze fell on the dying mage Gavr Plinius, who had unfortunately run into the falmer while trying to reach the Oculatory - that very mysterious Dwemer mechanism. His companion from the Synod, Parat, should have been waiting for Gavr there, as he was carrying a very valuable crystal without which the device wouldn't work.

Gavr successfully hurled the crystal at the falmer while escaping, but it apparently didn’t help. The purpose of the crystal was learned from a journal picked up from Gavr's body. Using the key the poor mage was clutching in his hands before death, Krozis started his path through yet another Dwemer ruins.

The hero moved forward, destroying one spider drone after another until he exited the ruins into a large cave. Cold ran down the mage's spine, and his instincts hinted that something horrifying awaited him around the corner. To his indescribable horror, he saw a GIGANTIC CORPSE.

If Molag Bal were sitting on a dragon around the corner now, Krozis wouldn’t have been as frightened. In a long and venomous battle, three broedras and about five liters of health potions perished, but the hero killed the creature nonetheless. Nearby rested a vein of moonstone (there would be several more in this dungeon) and a pickaxe.

Turning around and looking at the archway from which he exited to this hall, the hero saw a pile of stones behind which lay a real Dwemer shield! Tossing aside the elven one, Krozis armed himself with the find, instantly feeling warmth in his heart.

Running a little further, Krozis noticed a tripwire on the floor; activating it would drop a lot of boulders ahead, but it would take an effort to hit this trap. In this same cave, a fight awaited him with two normal-sized corpse creatures, fortunately, not gigantic. A little further, usual Dwemer rooms populated by spider drones (each carrying a bit of ore of various types) began again. After a long climb up monotonous corridors, Krozis reached a hall with a spider drone and a choice: to descend down or continue moving further.

Descending, the hero found an alchemy station and a chest behind a grate. Inside lay some junk. Mostly, the most valuable items in these ruins were pieces of Dwemer mechanisms, which could be melted down later.

Soon Krozis emerged in a large hall with pipes hanging dangerously low from the ceiling and strange machinery (spoiler: PRESSES) on the left wall. This passage was the only way to reach the opposite balcony (which Krozis needed to get to), but the Dwemer had wanted to help travelers journey downward, thus many years ago, establishing a series of mighty and sharp presses, dropping any careless hero right to the first floor. The outcome wasn't fatal, but it was unpleasant, especially since spiders were lurking at the bottom. Krozis, however, cautiously overcame the series of presses and continued his path, soon approaching a door into the boiler room.

Inside, the future greatest mage was met with EVEN MORE gray Dwemer corridors, bronze machines, and steam. What could be better? Soon, the hero found himself in a room with several closed chambers, in which lay the remains of sphere centurions and spider drones, who had apparently perished from hunger and loneliness.

A bit further, Krozis was presented with a break in the wall leading into falmer tunnels. At the exit from the tunnel, the hero remembered nothing; only his eyes were dazzled by the corpses on the falmers and balmers in layers.

Again finding himself in Dwemer ruins, Krozis stumbled upon a locked door with a max-difficulty lock, behind which, of course, instead of the Dragon’s Death Fire Crossbow, he found a skeleton with a book on the school of Illusion and several Dwemer scraps.

After some time, Krozis emerged into a large hall with three exits and a small fountain pond in the center. This fountain was very much appreciated by the falmer, who were joyfully splashing around in it until the hero arrived. The underground elves very much disliked being disturbed. In the course of a brief fight, the water became stained with... no color, as the falmer don't bleed. After examining everything around, Krozis climbed up the stairs on the left wall and soon reached the Aedrom - a gigantic complex of three large halls.

In the very first hall, the hero faced a battle against a large number of falmers led by the falmer Sneaking-in-Shadows, who only differed from his brethren by a stylish set of armor and an enchanted sword. From his body, Krozis emptied the very focusing crystal (did you forget why he came here?), but the door he needed to get through turned out to be locked. Krozis, starting to boil over in frustration with these ruins, headed to the opposite hall.

A pile of dead falmer corpses suggested that he would soon face something dangerous. Fortunately, it was NOT a gigantic mechanical corpse, but merely an extremely powerful sphere centurion. The fight was tough, but fire breath and fire bow combined with the fire daedra helped take down the automaton.

A weaker character would need to lure him into the first hall, where there is more space for maneuvering. A chest behind the machine contained the sought-after key. By the way, to the north of the main hall, behind the complex door, was a chest with very sad contents, which didn’t justify the complexity of the lock.

Inside, the hero (or rather, Gavr) awaited Parat Desimiy, quite upset about the death of his comrade. However, as soon as Krozis mentioned he had the crystal, Parat perked up and invited him to follow him to the Dwemer device. The Oculatory greatly impressed our hero with its scale, but its purpose remained unclear.

Desimiy explained that the device was supposed to gather the light of the stars, but checking its purpose was impossible until the perfect focusing crystal was created, as one of the machine's lenses was lost. By the way, the crystal was created by Parat himself.

After inserting the crystal into the center of the lens set, Krozis activated the device. There were three levers on the balcony and numerous books, but before pulling the levers and reading literature, it was necessary to focus the light of the lenses. This is achieved by applying Flame or Freeze spells of basic level on the crystal until the rays are directed ideally onto each of the rings of the dome. Krozis required three casts of Freeze. Spell №4, Freeze, a basic spell from the Destruction school.

After focusing, all that remained was to turn the rings on the dome with the levers so that the mirrors caught the rays of the focused light. After all these manipulations, a map of Tamriel projected onto the wall. This is a global tracking system! Although, thinking logically, it becomes somewhat unclear how the light of the stars would help to detect something, with a delay of millions of years. But the Dwemer knew better.

Seeing disturbances on the map, Parat began to express outrage and curse the mages of Skyrim, pointing to a serious distortion somewhere in the area of the College. Despite all attempts to prove to him that the Eye of Magnus had dug itself up and flown in, he was cursing and damning the local mages.

In any case, amid the quarrel, Parat HAPPENED to reveal the whereabouts of the sought-after staff – Labyrinthian, a godforsaken dungeon somewhere in the center of the province. Leaving behind a clearly mentally unstable mage next to the most valuable techno-magical device on the continent, Krozis began moving towards the exit, just to be caught by Nerin, another mage from the Psijic Order.

In good tradition, Nerin warned that everything bad had already happened, and the terrible was occurring right now, and it was necessary to hurry back to the College. He also reminded that the order mentally supported Krozis, and he, Nerin, was rooting for the hero with all his heart but could NOT intervene AT ALL. Right behind his back was a door leading outside.

Upon arriving at the College, Krozis discovered that panic and chaos reigned there. In the Hall of Elements, Ancano seized the Eye, put up defenses, and was now casting something over the sphere. The obvious villain-racist-manipulator had seized an artifact of unknown power, unattended by anyone, what a twist….

But the archmage was not in the mood for jokes, as he and Mirabelle couldn't break Ancano's protective dome. Thank the gods that the highly capable mage Krozis arrived just in time, as the basic Flame spell was exactly what was needed to break the shield. Spell №5, Flame, a basic spell from the Destruction school.

The barrier of the mighty mage fell under the combined pressure of Sparks, Freeze, and Flame, after which the three wizards rushed to attack. Unfortunately, Ancano had anticipated everything (or, rather, had anticipated nothing at all), so immediately there followed a tremendous magical explosion, leaving Krozis dazed.

Sustaining

Krozis seriously prepared to head to the Upper Honningsgard, but Mirabelle managed to revive him, bless her. An archmage of Restoration, no less. Ancano had hidden behind an even more powerful shield, continuing to work with the Eye, and Mirabelle ordered the hero to find the archmage, who UNEXPECTEDLY vanished after the explosion.

As it turned out, archmages particularly poorly survive magical explosions of ancient artifacts. So poorly that they become post-mortem part of the earth. At first, Krozis could hardly believe his eyes, but evidently, Savos's roots had already set in deeply; he couldn't be moved. Tolfdir sadly announced that the explosion also unleashed magical anomalies into the city, which would clearly not help reduce the locals’ distrust of magic and the College (they had once fumbled with a cataclysm, since then relationships were extremely tense).

Krozis did not want to tangle with the creatures alone, so he called Faralda to join him, and she brought along Arniel Gane. The city was unexpectedly empty, which significantly simplified the tasks of exterminating all ten anomalies. Hitting them with arrows was nearly impossible, but the two mages handled it well without Krozis's help, who was busy collecting soul gems from the remains of the creatures.

Returning to the guild, Krozis reported to Mirabelle about the successful completion of operation "Find and Destroy" in Winterhold, then mentioned that Magnus’s staff was in Labyrinthian. As it turned out, just before his death, the archmage had given her the key to this dungeon. What a coincidence! The archmage also left behind an amulet that Mirabelle handed to Krozis. The amulet provided a decent bonus of 50 to maximum magicka, which combined with the circlet he had earlier gathered made for a respectable number. However, our hero did not use pure magicka; true wizards kept all their power found in staves and bows.

The Staff of Magnus

Labyrinthian turned out to be an extremely impressive complex of ruins where several snow trolls warmly welcomed the hero, smiling and pointing the way inside. Right at the entrance to the dungeon, several ghosts suddenly appeared, or rather, memories of events that had occurred here many years ago.

The phantoms belonged to College students discussing whether they should enter the mysterious cave without the presence of a supervising instructor. Among them, by the way, there was a cheeky and self-confident Savos Aren, the future archmage and head of the College. Looking at what a jerk he had been in the past, Krozis understood a lot.

Inside lay numerous skeletons; in the room to the right, the hero found a book teaching the spell Underwater Breathing, which he immediately studied. Suddenly, he might want to swim in the empty, icy waters of Skyrim? Moving further, Krozis overheard the phantoms panicking a little, and he pulled the lever that opened a passage to a giant cave.

And that's where the fun began. Several skeletons seemed an easy warm-up, but then they were assisted by a GIGANTIC SKELETAL DRAGON. Which also breathed ice. Praising the god of columns, Krozis hid behind one of them, then shot the dracolich with arrows. A skeleton. With a bow. Yes.

In the next room, the dialogue of the phantoms revealed that, during the last visit of the mages, the dragon was very much alive and more than dangerous, and the mages did not think to take cover behind the column. It can be presumed that those skeletons probably belonged to them. But the squad did not notice the loss of their fighter, so the mages kept moving forward. Our hero followed their example.

Having defeated the draugrs in the next room, Krozis found himself facing a frozen wall. A strange voice resonated from beyond the wall, pulling all the magic from the mighty mage (ha-ha), after which a strange icy spirit passed through the ice, resembling a ghost-draugr more closely. The spirit fell in an unequal struggle, after which the hero melted the wall with Flame. Spell №6, once again Flame. They were practically forcing the master of magic to use his otherworldly power for some of the simplest tasks. That voice, draining magic, would resonate a few more times throughout this dungeon.

Descending ever lower and lower, the hero stumbled upon an enchanting altar guarded by two draugrs. Judging by the surroundings, they had executed someone here many years ago, right in the process of creating some powerful artifact.

Pushing even further, Krozis jumped into the water (a Nirnroot lay under the stairs) and proceeded downstream, fighting one draugr after another.

Soon, he entered a relatively large stone hall, where he would face a fight against a troll utterly unexpected for such places. No, seriously, why hadn’t the draugrs eaten him yet? Krozis cautiously walk, magical traps began to appear on the floor.

The further path led the hero into a gigantic cave with gates in the center. Behind the gates lay a genuine underground graveyard, and some fireflies hovered over the graves. As it turned out, the fireflies did not appreciate grave desecrators, so peacefully walking through the graveyard was not possible.

Their killing angered a much more dangerous creature roaming nearby - the Mother of Fireflies. This ghost wielded extremely powerful ice magic and was able to multiply by summoning Shadows, which also utilized ice spells. The battle was complex, but Krozis managed to triumph by skillfully maneuvering between graves and shooting it with arrows.

After passing a bit further, the hero encountered a fire door that needed to be frozen with a spell. Freeze, №7. Phantoms were becoming fewer and fewer, and Krozis was suspicious that the Mother of Fireflies might have once transformed into one of the sorceressess who was part of this group from the start.

Defeating the spectral draugrs (what in the world, are they doubly dead?) the hero continued to descend ever lower, until he reached a room packed with traps.

In the far part of the room, three soul stones stood on pedestals; the middle one continuously fired very powerful fireballs, while the other two burned with streams of flames. The mage disabled the traps by shooting the stones with arrows and deactivated the floor traps the old-fashioned way, with the daedra.

Nearby this room, behind a grate with an extremely complicated lock, the hero found a very good two-handed weapon enchanted with fire damage, a helmet for fire resistance, and a real ebony shield, which he promptly armed himself with. The helmet and sword had to be left behind; space was catastrophically lacking.

Soon Krozis found himself in a large hall with a throne on which another draugr chieftain sat, who immediately knocked the weapon out of the hero's hands with a shout. But the pitiful zombie had nothing to counter an inventory of boundless size, so the hero simply took out another staff. After two daedra and a couple dozen arrows, the enemy fell, and Krozis read a new shout on the wall behind the throne. The shout turned out to be time-slowing, but the level of slowdown didn’t compare to the Psijic’s tricks.

A bit further into the same hall, the hero encountered a draugr-mage summoning ice atronachs, but the insane amount of fire damage helped again to solve all problems.

Ultimately, Krozis exited into a gigantic hall where some spectral mages held something very powerful and very evil with their energy, calling themselves Morokei. Naturally, the sought-after staff was in possession of the trapped and extremely dangerous dragon priest, but all this running around had bored Krozis to the core, and he was now ready to set free and destroy Dagoth Ur himself if the staff was in his possession instead of, say, a leg. Killing the mages that have kept the monster restrained for years (slaying them seemed like a very logical move at that moment), the hero prepared for a long and dangerous battle.

This is how 95% of the battle looked

The first attempt lasted about 10 seconds, and Morokei vaporized the great mage with a single lightning strike. Returning to the past, Krozis thought he should have stocked up on potions and resistance items against lightning, but it was already too late. The hero summoned a broedra, who immediately went to the side of the priest, bound by powerful sorcery. Understanding that summoning wouldn’t help, Krozis started to maneuver and seek cover behind columns, periodically peeking out and sending arrows at Morokei. The battle, the hero thought, lasted hours. In reality, it stretched on for days; the arrows hardly damaged the priest. But the hero was lucky; Morokei had strange rules and principles. For example, he did not move from his spot if he was with Krozis at the same level. Even if there was a column between them. Be that as it may, Krozis ultimately exited the struggle as victor. Grabbing the staff and a new mask (which the hero still could not wear since the old one was stuck), the mage cleared two chests near the exit, after which he saw Savos’s spirit. He apologized to his companions, who, as it turned out, he had transformed and forced to forever restrain the mighty Morokei. In short, he deserved his death; karma doesn't forgive.

In the next room, Krozis faced Estormo, another Thalmor agent, who wanted to prevent our hero from obtaining the staff. The artifact, by the way, drained magic and health from the target, so Krozis decided to immediately test his new toy on his opponent, hoping to block the enemy mage. However, Estormo, screeching curses and writhing in agony, did not cease casting spells, subtly hinting to the hero that the new staff was utterly useless. In sorrowful spirits, Krozis returned to the College to put an end to all this.

The Eye of Magnus

Directly to the College's building, by the way, he couldn't teleport, so the hero found himself in the center of Winterhold. It turned out that the guild's building was now surrounded by an impassable barrier of unstable energy, and all the mages stood outside. All, except Mirabelle, who stayed behind to cover the retreat. From whom? From Ancano, who hadn’t unglued himself from the sphere for a second? Or from anomalies that couldn't harm even a child? In any case, Krozis honored her memory with a moment of silence and prepared to breach the barrier. Firmly standing on the bridge right before the barrier, Krozis shouted: “I am a servant of the Flames, wielder of the Frostbite! The Magnus Eye will not avail you, Ancano! Go back to the Aldmeri Dominion! I shall pass!!”, after which he shattered the barrier with one application of the staff.

In the best traditions of villains gluttonously tasting power, Ancano was extremely confident and asserted that he was now above some pathetic magic because he owned AAAAABSOLUTE POWER! Tolfdir advised the hero to use the staff on the Eye, after which he fell into paralysis caused by Ancano. The latter, by the way, had completely lost it, deciding to unleash the Eye in full and absorb all its power. Without hesitation, Krozis applied the staff to the revealed eye, removing the elf's shields and summoning several anomalies hostile to everyone that attacked Ancano.

What happened next is recounted in legends. Some say that Krozis decided, at last, to use all his magical power, and during a magnificent duel of two mages in which all available schools were involved, he brought Ancano to his knees and teleported him into separate oblivion planes. Some claim Krozis won thanks to the secret art of Mysticism and the power of friendship. A few whispers that during the Eye's opening, a wave of magic managed to strip Krozis of his mask.... Tolfdir, who lay there in a state of paralysis, believed until the end of his days that what he saw, a giant mustached wrestler smashing the elf with a column and then jumping on top of him from the Eye like an illusion wrought by the sphere's magic. Parat Desimiy, still looking at the time map, would have argued that for a moment the star map of Tamriel had shifted to the incomprehensible phrase "HUL..MAN.A W… LIVE FOREVER!" But these are all probably just tales.

In any case, the battle was over, and Krozis could only say one thing - Ancano couldn’t even be compared to Morokei, and the battlefield was much more convenient. Unfortunately, the power of the Eye continued to grow (having soaked up the epicness of the battle, most likely), and according to the revived Tolfdir, this could lead to even more terrible catastrophe. Fortunately for everyone, the Psijic order decided to intervene in the natural course of events and stop the inevitable magical explosion. Three members of the order already familiar to Krozis teleported into the Hall of Elements and took the sphere with them, finally stating that they always believed in the hero (Krozis felt flattered) and always knew everything would end well. What had prevented them from taking it immediately? Unclear.

Moreover, Krozis's magical prowess displayed was so impressive that the order's members immediately appointed him as the new archmage (and this, despite the fact that there is a much more experienced Tolfdir, and they should not influence the guild at all), solemnly handing him the set of robes.

Thus, the new head of the mages guild of Skyrim took his post, having used only 7 spells of the most basic level and not raising any magical skill above 20 units. A great future certainly awaited the guild, as Krogen Halzis Krozis planned to unite it later with some other organization, of which he now recalled he was also the head. But for now, our hero sat in his new quarters and admired the wonderful garden cultivated by the previous archmage. At least he benefitted from him.


WHAT A TWIIIIST!